People, employment & payroll

Start with the employment relationship

Every employee must have a written employment agreement. It must contain the mandatory information required by New Zealand employment law, while minimum statutory rights continue to apply even if an agreement omits them or attempts to provide less.

Employers should make the agreed work, place of work, hours or indication of hours, pay and other required terms clear before work begins, keep the agreement current, and make sure payroll reflects what actually happens.

Manager focus

Manager check

• Does every employee have a current written employment agreement containing the mandatory clauses?
• Do the employee’s actual duties, work location and working arrangements still match the agreement?
• Are actual hours captured accurately enough to demonstrate minimum-wage and leave compliance?
• Are current minimum wage rates checked whenever rates change and when salary or hours change?
• Are holiday and leave calculations based on the employee’s real working pattern rather than an unverified payroll default?
• Does every payroll deduction have a lawful basis, with written agreement and consultation where required?
• Are final-pay calculations checked when employment ends?
• Can the business retrieve the required wage, time, holiday and leave records for current and former employees?

Records & retention

Employers must keep complete and accurate wage and time records and holiday and leave records. Employment New Zealand states these records must be kept for 6 years. Using payroll software does not transfer the employer’s responsibility: the system still needs to reflect actual hours, pay, leave and changes to employment conditions.

Payslips are useful but are not universally required unless the employment agreement requires them. An employee can request access to the employment records the employer is legally required to keep.

Some tax and payroll information can have different statutory retention requirements. Do not apply the six-year employment-record period as a blanket retention rule to every business or tax record.

Useful NZ framework

This guide is based primarily on the Employment Relations Act 2000, Holidays Act 2003, Minimum Wage Act 1983 and Wages Protection Act 1983. Employment standards change, including annual minimum-wage rates, so managers should verify current requirements rather than relying permanently on a downloaded checklist.