New Zealand minimum wage
The statutory national adult minimum hourly wage, prescribed annually by Order in Council under the Minimum Wage Act 1983.
| Current value | 23.95 NZD/hour |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-04-01 |
| Official source | Minimum Wage Order 2026 (SL 2026/16), made under ss 4, 4A and 4B of the Minimum Wage Act 1983, notified in the New Zealand Gazette 19 February 2026, in force 1 April 2026 (revokes and replaces the Minimum Wage Order 2025); rate published by Employment New Zealand (MBIE), 'Minimum wage rates and types' |
| Last verified | 2026-07-20 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
NZD 23.95 per hour gross (before PAYE and other lawful deductions), equal to NZD 191.60 per 8-hour day, NZD 958.00 per 40-hour week and NZD 1,916.00 per 80-hour fortnight — those are the official equivalents published by MBIE, not derived here. This is a single NATIONAL rate: New Zealand is a unitary state with no regional or sectoral minimum-wage matrix, so no sub-national variation applies. Two lower statutory sub-rates exist and are both set at 80% of the adult rate: the STARTING-OUT minimum wage and the TRAINING minimum wage, each NZD 19.16/hour from 1 April 2026. Starting-out applies to 16-17 year olds in their first 6 continuous months with an employer, to 16-19 year olds contractually required to do at least 40 industry-training credits a year, and to certain 18-19 year olds who have been on specified social security benefits for 6+ months; it does not apply where the role involves supervising or training others. Training applies to employees aged 20+ contractually required to complete at least 60 industry-training credits a year (typically apprentices). Employees under 16, and disabled workers holding a Minimum Wage Exemption Permit issued by a Labour Inspector under s 8 of the Act, are outside the minimum wage. The rate is reviewed annually by MBIE with the new order normally taking effect on 1 April. ACCESS QUIRK: legislation.govt.nz served a 'Human Verification' interstitial (bot challenge) on the SL 2026/16 whole-instrument page and the PDF mirror on nzlii.org returned HTTP 403, so the instrument citation (SL 2026/16 and 19 February 2026 gazettal) was taken from the legislation.govt.nz record metadata and the operative rate from the MBIE/Employment New Zealand publication, which is the administering agency.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-04-01 | 20 | Minimum Wage Order 2021; Employment New Zealand, 'Previous m |
| 2022-04-01 | 21.2 | Minimum Wage Order 2022; Employment New Zealand, 'Previous m |
| 2023-04-01 | 22.7 | Minimum Wage Order 2023; Employment New Zealand, 'Previous m |
| 2024-04-01 | 23.15 | Minimum Wage Order 2024; Employment New Zealand, 'Previous m |
| 2025-04-01 | 23.5 | Minimum Wage Order 2025; Employment New Zealand, 'Previous m |
Get it programmatically
curl https://ausref.dev/v1/nz/minimum-wage
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://ausref.dev/v1/nz/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://ausref.dev/provenance/nz/minimum-wageOther New Zealand series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates