Every April brings payroll changes, and 2026 is no exception. Here's a summary of what's changing from 1 April and what it means for you and your team.

Minimum wage increase

• The adult minimum wage increases from $23.50 to $23.95 per hour. 
• The starting-out and training minimum wages increase from $18.80 to $19.16 per hour.

If you have any employees on the current minimum wage, you'll need to update their pay rate. This also applies to salaried employees - check that their salary still meets the minimum wage when divided by their actual hours worked. If you’re using the minimum wage top up in PaySauce, this will automatically be updated to use the new minimum wage rate. 

KiwiSaver contributions increasing to 3.5%

The minimum KiwiSaver contribution rate for both employers and employees is increasing from 3% to 3.5%. This applies to any payday on or after 1 April 2026.

We'll automatically update the employer contribution rate from 3% to 3.5% in PaySauce: you don't need to do anything for this change.

You will need to take action in PaySauce if:

• An employee gets an approved rate reduction from IRD (which lets you keep the employer contribution at 3% for the approved period)
• You have a 16 or 17 year old KiwiSaver member that you need to start making employer contributions for
• You use total remuneration (inclusive) pay rates and want to adjust base rates - see our separate guide on this below

Employees currently contributing at 3% will see their deduction increase to 3.5%, which means a small reduction in take-home pay. You may want to give your team a heads-up so it's not a surprise on their payslip. We've created an employee email template you can copy and send.

A couple of other things to be aware of: employees can apply to IRD for a temporary rate reduction to stay at 3%, and if they do, you can choose to match that lower rate. The rate is set to increase again to 4% on 1 April 2028.

If your employees already contribute at 4%, 6%, 8%, or 10%, their employee contribution stays the same - but your employer contribution must still increase to at least 3.5%.

16 and 17 year olds now eligible for employer contributions

From 1 April 2026, if you employ anyone aged 16 or 17 who is a KiwiSaver member and contributing from their wages, you'll need to start matching with at least 3.5% employer contributions. Before this date, employer contributions were only required for employees aged 18 to 65.

KiwiSaver contributions when on periods of unpaid leave

When an employee goes on unpaid leave, KiwiSaver contributions normally stop automatically. However, if you want to keep contributing voluntarily, IRD have outlined some options to do so in their recent specifications release. 

One option is to pay directly to the employee's KiwiSaver provider: arrange this with the provider and pay via internet banking using the "Pay tax" function (tax type "KSS", period "0", employee's IRD number). These are voluntary contributions but are still subject to ESCT which would need to be calculated and accounted for. 

This is fairly complex and still needs further clarification, especially if you are using a PAYE intermediary to calculate and file your payments, so we’ll provide more information about this in further updates. 

ACC earner levy increase

The ACC earner levy is increasing from $1.67 to $1.75 per $100 of liable earnings (GST inclusive). The maximum liable earnings threshold also increases to $156,641.

PaySauce will update this automatically. Your employees don't need to do anything, but they may notice a small reduction in take-home pay as a result.

What you may need to do

• Update pay rates for employees on or near minimum wage
• Start employer KiwiSaver contributions for any 16-17 year old KiwiSaver members
• Apply a rate reduction if an employee has an approved one from IRD
• Review base rates if you use total remuneration arrangements (see our detailed guide: [link to article 2])
• Let your team know about changes to their take-home pay

More information

• KiwiSaver changes FAQs
• Access the employee email template
• Total remuneration guide
• How to update employee pay rates in PaySauce

‍