Employees aged 16 years and over must be paid at least the adult minimum wage rate, unless they are starting-out workers or trainees.
All employees who are involved in training or supervising other employees must be paid at least the adult minimum wage rate.
Starting-out workers must be paid at least the minimum starting-out wage rate.
Trainees over 20 years of age must be paid at least the minimum training wage rate.
Employers and employees may agree to any wage rate as long as it is not less than the applicable minimum wage rate.
Starting out workers are:
16- and 17-year-old employees who have not yet completed six months of continuous employment with their current employer.
18- and 19-year-old employees who have been paid a specified social security benefit for six months or more, and who have not yet completed six months continuous employment with any employment since they started being paid a benefit. Once they have completed six months continuous employment with a single employer, they will no longer be a starting-out worker, and must be paid at least the adult minimum wage rate.
16- to 19-year-old employees who are required by their employment agreement to undertake industry training for at least 40 credits a year in order to become qualified for the occupation to which their employment agreement relates.
Trainees are:
Employees who are aged 20 years or over who are required by their employment agreement to undertake at least 60 credits a year in an industry training programme in order to become qualified for the occupation to which their employment agreement relates.
Minimum Wage Information
Minimum wage rates must be paid to all employees whether full-time, part-time fixed-term, casual employees, working from home and people paid totally or partly by commission or piece rates.
There is no minimum wage for employees aged under 16 but all other employment rights and entitlements still apply. When looking at whether an employee who is 16 years or older is a starting-out worker, any time spent employed by an employer before the employee turned 16 must be included when calculating the time that employee has been continuously employed.
A small number of people hold an exemption from the minimum wage.
Anyone who thinks they are being paid less than the minimum wage should call the Ministry free on 0800 20 90 20.
For employees on piece rates – for example, workers who get so many cents a kilogram for fruit picked, or so many dollars per garment produced – the total amount earned per hour, day or week still cannot be less than the minimum wage.
Employees should get at least the minimum wage if they are 16 years of age and over, whether they are a full-time, part-time or casual employee, a home worker, or paid wholly or partly by commission. The minimum wage does not apply to people who have an exemption. (The Minimum Wage Act 1983 provides that Labour Inspectors from the Department of Labour may issue minimum wage exemption permits to workers who are limited by a disability in carrying out the requirements of their work. This means a lower minimum wage rate is set for a particular person in a particular job for the period in the permit.)
Employers and employees may agree to terms that are more than the legislative minimum, but may not agree to terms that are less.
The Minimum Wage Act 1983 provides that Labour Inspectors from the Ministry may issue minimum wage exemption permits to workers who are limited by a disability in carrying out the requirements of their work. This means a lower minimum wage rate is set for a particular person in a particular job for the period in the permit. Call the Ministry free on 0800 20 90 20 for more information.
Minimum Wage Rates 2019
The current (2019) adult minimum wage rates (before tax) that apply for employees aged 16 is:
$17.70 per hour, which is
$141.60 for an 8-hour day or
$708.00 for a 40-hour week.
The current minimum wage rates that apply to Starting Out employees, and employees on the training minimum wage (before tax), is:
$14.16 per hour, which is
$113.28 for an 8-hour day or
$566.40 for a 40-hour week