The 2025/2026 New Zealand Living Wage will rise by $1.15 to $28.95 per hour from later this year.
The increase, which aligns with a 4.2% rise in NZ’s hourly wage, will be introduced for employees and contractors of accredited living wage employers and will come into effect on September 1.
It means living wage employees will earn at least $5.45 per hour more than those on the minimum wage.
The minimum wage goes up to $23.50 an hour from today.
The new living wage rate of $28.95 per hour is around 68% of the average hourly earnings in New Zealand.
Living Wage Aotearoa NZ calculates the wage, with 342 businesses across multiple industries being accredited.
Executive Director of Living Wage Aotearoa NZ Gina Lockyer said the wage represents “the income necessary to provide workers and their families with the basic necessities of life, enabling workers to live with dignity and participate as active citizens in society”.
“The Living Wage has made a real difference to workers for over a decade now,.
“For many workers and their families, it’s the difference between being able to make ends meet or falling behind. It’s being able to afford school uniforms and medical expenses. It means not having to decide between doing a grocery shop or paying the power bill.”
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Nicola Willis proposed changes to government procurement rules with the aim of reducing the rules companies needed to meet when bidding for government contracts.
One of the rules possibly on the chopping block was a requirement that people bidding for government contracts must pay cleaners, security guards and catering staff the living wage.
“The proposed changes to the government procurement rules are all about making it easier for New Zealand businesses to get Government contracts,” Willis has said about why they wanted to change procurement rules.
“We want to properly look at the impact New Zealand businesses have when they get a Government contract. And that’s in terms of the jobs they create, the incomes they create, the social impact for the communities.”
Any change to living wage requirements would apply to new contracts, not existing ones.
“In fact, this is about giving a leg up to those firms who do good in our communities, who hire Kiwis, who give them the opportunities to upskill, who bring young people into their firms.
Willis said the Government was working to reduce the number of “box-ticking rules”, and instead “assess them on the overall value they create for the community”.
Lockyer said Living Wage Aotearoa NZ had “concerns” about the potential living wage requirement – which would apply to new contracts – being scrapped.
“If the changes go ahead, these workers will miss out on the new Living Wage rate, and any future increases,” she said.
“The Government has two choices – a Living Wage that improves community outcomes and service delivery, or hardship for the people who keep their agencies safe, healthy, and secure.”
She said a recent poll found that 62% of voters opposed the removal of living wage requirements in Government procurement, compared to 23% who supported the idea.
