Important Payroll Changes Effective 1 April 2026
As an employer, it’s important to stay informed about upcoming changes that affect payroll, employee entitlements, and contributions. From 1 April 2026, there are several key updates to the minimum wage, ACC Earner Levy, and KiwiSaver contribution rates.
Below is a summary of these changes and what they mean for you and your business, including the actions you may need to take to ensure compliance and manage the impact on your payroll and cashflow.
1. Minimum Wage Increase:
- The Adult Minimum wage is increasing from $23.50 per hour to $23.95 per hour
- The Training and Starting-Out Minimum wages are increasing from $18.80 per hour to $19.16 per hour
What this means for you: If you have any employees on Minimum Wage you will need to ensure their pay rate is updated from 1 April 2026. Also check any salaried employees meet minimum wage requirements by taking salary divided by actual hours worked. For someone on salary that is close to minimum wage, this is a check that is required each pay if irregular hours are worked.
2. ACC Earner Levy Increase:
The ACC Earner Levy rate is increasing from $1.67 to $1.75 per $100 of liable earnings. These amounts are inclusive of GST. The maximum liable earnings threshold increases to $156,641.
What this means for you: Your payroll software should automatically update (but it always pays to check with the software team). Your employees may notice a small change (reduction) in their take home pay due to this change.
3. KiwiSaver Contribution Changes
The minimum / default KiwiSaver contribution rate is increasing from 3% to 3.5%. This relates to both Employer contributions and Employee contributions.
Temporary Rate Reduction: Employees can apply for a temporary rate reduction from 1st February 2026 if they want to carry on contributing at 3% from 1st April 2026. They can apply for the temporary rate reduction for a 3 month to 12 month period, and they can apply as many times as they like. The Temporary Rate reduction can be applied for through their myIR account. More details can be found here
Employers can choose to match the Employees temporary rate reduction, moving the Employer contributions down to 3% to match, but they can also choose to stay contributing at 3.5%.
What this means for you: Again this change will impact on your wage expenses, so check in on your cashflow planning and how this may impact.
Future planning: From 1st April 2028 the minimum/default KiwiSaver contribution rate will increase again to 4%














