As previously announced by the government the adult minimum wage will increase, from $18.90 to $20.00 per hour on 1 April 2021.
The starting-out and training minimum wage rates will also increase on 1 April 2021, from $15.12 to $16.00 per hour.
As an employer, you need to ensure your payroll systems and processes are updated.
While the Government must review the Minimum Wage annually the new Government has already pledged to get it up to $20 per hour by 2020. The first step to this target is the increase that comes into effect from 1st April 2018
The new minimum wage rates are:
Adult – $16.50 an hour
Starting-out – $13.20 an hour (up from $12.60)
Training – $13.20 an hour (up from $12.60)
If you already pay above the minimum wage there is no obligation to increase it proportionally.
If you have any employees earning less that $16.50 an hour then you MUST increase their pay rate to the appropriate new minimum wage
Employees who are paid wages need to be paid for the actual hours they work. This includes any extra hours completed.
For Salaried staff you need to consider if they are being paid below minimum wage for total hours of work.
The minimum wage is increasing. It already feels like old news, particularly in view of the stream of new government announcements. However, that is just the start of measures likely to increase wage costs. The Labour led government has also stated they will change the Equal Pay Bill the previous National government had proposed to prevent a case similar to the $2b aged care workers’ settlement. They are also introducing ‘Fair Pay Agreements’ which will set out minimum employment conditions across industries and sectors for terms such as wages, allowances, weekend and night rates, hours of work and leave arrangements. It sounds like reverting to old Award days to me.
If you are already gulping for air and deciding you will only engage contractors, be aware of the fish hooks of that approach. Within the first 12 months in government Labour has set out to extend the right to bargain collectively to contractors who primarily sell their labour, and investigate measures to improve job security for people in ‘precarious forms of employment’ which includes contracted and sub-contracted workers.
If you are now thinking you will engage youth workers as a more affordable option, there is no respite there. The Labour manifesto states they intend to abolish youth rates within 12 months.
To recap briefly on the minimum wage – it will increase to $16.50 from 1 April 2018. That’s a 4.8% increase.
In the Coalition Agreement it has also been stated that the minimum wage will increase to $20 per hour on 1 April 2021, with incremental steps in between. That is a 27% increase over 4 years. For a full time employee on minimum wage that is an annual salary of $41,600.
What does this mean for employers? To state the obvious, it will increase costs. For employers with proportionally more employees at or near the minimum wage level, that increase in cost will be proportionately higher. Industries that traditionally pay in the lower pay brackets are accommodation & food, wholesale & retail trade, and healthcare & social assistance. (Data source: Treasury)
If you currently have a wage differential between positions, for example a junior line operator, a senior line operator and a supervisor, your employees will want to maintain the differential. As such it is not only minimum wage earners who will expect a significant wage increase.
Unfortunately increasing minimum wage does nothing to improve productivity. I have yet to see employees working harder or smarter as a result of a pay increase. So you are not going to get better outputs as a result.
Some of the key options are:
It is important employers start to consider the impacts on their organisation now, and plan for it in advance. Increasing prices incrementally is often more palatable to customers than one large increase. Putting in place plans to increase productivity needs to happen before the business is in trouble. If you need to restructure your staffing this takes time, and again is better done before the business is in distress. Just keep in mind Labour has also stated they want to begin consultation on improving minimum redundancy protection for employees.
And the changes keep on coming.
Employer monthly schedules and ir-files filed with IRD are based on the payment date of the pay run (not the pay period end date). After you have finalised the last pay for March and printed your end of year reports (make sure this includes leave liabilities/balances), go ahead and file your ir-file with IRD as usual.
The next step is to review and update your employees’ salary and wage information. Ensure all employees on minimum wage have their rates updated to the new minimum wage of $15.75. The new rate needs to be applied from 1 April. If 1 April falls in the middle of a pay period, you can either pay different rates by inserting an extra line with the different rate, or apply the new minimum rate for the whole pay period.
If you have contractors using the WT tax rates on schedular payments (including those hired by labour-hire firms), they are from 1 April able to choose their own tax rate, subject to minimums. New contractors, existing contractors (if they need to change tax rate or starting a new contract) and those opting in to the schedular payments rules need to complete the IR330C Tax Rate notification for Contractors form.
ACC levies, ACC threshold and student loan repayment threshold are automatically updated if you are using payroll software.
Want to read more?
The Government have announced that the minimum wages will increase by 50 cents to $15.75 an hour from 1 April 2017.