If you are a small or family owned business this is even more vital as you may not have a dedicated human resources team to manage these for you. Meeting your legal obligations is an important part of running your business as well as building strong employment relationships with your employees. Minimum wage raises can also impact your internal wage relativity, external benchmarking and future pay expectations of your staff.

 

New Zealand employment law requires all employees to have a current written employment contract. All contracts need to clearly outline the wage rate or salary payable which are required to be equal to or more than the relevant minimum wage. Any changes will need to be written up in a contract variation letter sent to the employee advising them of the new wage.

​

Tools such as The Employment Agreement Builder from www.business.govt.nz can help you create a new contract. It covers what you must do by law, and also sets out common mistakes and how they can be avoided.

 

On April 1 2021, the adult minimum wage increased from $18.90 to $20.00 gross per hour, and the starting out and training rate increased from $15.12 to $16.00 gross per hour.