Minimum employment rights

Employment agreements

Under the Employment Relations Act 2000, an employer must provide the employee with a written employment agreement that sets out the terms and conditions of employment.
The employee has the right to seek independent advice on the agreement – such as giving it to you or another trusted adult to have a look at.
The Department of Labour provides an employment agreement builder to help put together an employment agreement with your employee

By law, the employer must pay wages in money and not in any other form e.g. paying with goods or services.

Under the Minimum Wage Act 1983, every employee aged 16 and over must be paid at least the applicable minimum wage
Until recently, there was a youth minimum wage for those aged between 16 and 17
This has now been replaced with a new entrants’ minimum wage, which depends on how long or how many hours the employee has worked:

There are three minimum wage rates:

the adult minimum wage applies to all employees aged 16 and over who are not new entrants or trainees
the new entrants minimum wage applies to employees aged 16 and 17 except for those who have completed 200 hours or three months of employment (since their 16th birthday), whichever is shorter; or who are supervising or training other workers; or who are trainees
the training minimum wage applies to employees aged 16 and over who are doing recognised industry training involving at least 60 credits a year.

There is no statutory minimum wage for employees who are under 16 years old.

Minimum wage rates are reviewed every year. For current minimum wage rates, please see our Minimum wage page.

Under the Holidays Act 2003 all employees become entitled to four weeks’ annual holidays after one year of continuous employment
For employees on a fixed-term agreement of less than 12 months, or where the hours worked by the employee are so intermittent that it is impractical for the employer to provide four weeks’ annual holidays, the employer may provide the employee with 8% of their gross weekly earnings instead of annual holidays.
Pay-as-you-go provisions, must be agreed as part of the employment agreement with 8% of the employee’s gross earnings required to be separately identified on the payslip too.

All employees are entitled to a paid day off on a public holiday if it would otherwise be a working day for them.
If the employee works on the public holiday and it is an otherwise working day for them, they are entitled to be paid time-and-a-half and have an alternative holiday.
If the employee works on the public holiday and it is not an otherwise working day for them, they are entitled to be paid time-and-a-half but not to an alternative holiday as well.
If the employee does not work on the public holiday, and it is not an otherwise working day for them, they are not entitled to be paid for the day, or to receive an alternative holiday.

After six months of continuous employment an employee becomes entitled to five days’ sick leave, and three days’ bereavement leave upon the death of an immediate family member. An employee may also be entitled to one day of bereavement leave for a non immediate family member if the employer accepts an employee has suffered a bereavement.

The Wages Protection Act 1983 protects the employee’s right to receive wages from their employer without unauthorised deductions.
The common exceptions to this are deductions the employer is required to make by law, such as PAYE tax and ACC levies.