Calculators

What is owed on redundancy in New Zealand, mandatory and contractual

Gross entitlements when a role is disestablished.

Start here: NEW ZEALAND HAS NO STATUTORY REDUNDANCY PAY. An employee gets redundancy compensation only if their employment agreement provides for it. This is the opposite of the UK and Australian position and it is the most common error in general advice about NZ redundancy. The default clause is "none" and statutory_position says this in words; pass it on.

What IS owed by law is the mandatory side: wages worked and unpaid, annual leave not taken, alternative holidays not taken, and the notice period.

Two totals come back and they answer different questions:

total_all_in everything the person receives, the SAME figure whether notice is worked or paid in lieu. Quote this when someone asks what they will get. total_package the final pay only. Quote this when they are asking about the payslip.

They differ because notice worked arrives as ordinary salary over those weeks rather than as a lump sum. Quoting only the final pay makes payment in lieu look better off by a whole notice period, which it is not.

Every figure is gross. Redundancy compensation is an extra pay taxed at the lump sum rate, so use /v1/lump-sum-tax for the tax on it.

post/v1/redundancy-entitlement

Request

  • Base URL: https://api.calculate.co.nz
  • URL: https://api.calculate.co.nz/v1/redundancy-entitlement
  • Auth: API key in header X-API-Key

Request body

annual_salarynumber required

Gross annual salary.

years_of_serviceinteger

Completed years. Part years are not counted.

notice_weeksinteger

Notice period in weeks.

notice_workedboolean

True if the notice period is worked, false if paid in lieu. It changes where the money appears, not how much there is.

annual_leave_daysnumber

Days of annual leave accrued and not taken.

alternative_holiday_daysnumber

Alternative holidays ('days in lieu') not taken.

redundancy_clause'none' | '2_weeks' | '3_weeks' | '4_weeks' | 'fixed_4' | 'fixed_8' | 'fixed_13' | 'custom'

What the employment agreement provides. Default is none, because New Zealand has no statutory redundancy pay.

custom_redundancy_amountnumber

Used only when redundancy_clause is 'custom'.

outstanding_wagesnumber

Wages worked and not yet paid.

Example request

{
  "alternative_holiday_days": 2,
  "annual_leave_days": 12,
  "annual_salary": 85000,
  "custom_redundancy_amount": 0,
  "notice_weeks": 4,
  "notice_worked": true,
  "outstanding_wages": 1500,
  "redundancy_clause": "2_weeks",
  "years_of_service": 8
}

Response

Final pay, everything received all in, and the two kept apart.

disclaimerstring required

Scope and limits of this calculation.

Example response

{
  "disclaimer": "All figures are GROSS. New Zealand has no statutory redundancy pay, so compensation depends entirely on the employment agreement. This is a guide to what to check, not employment law advice.",
  "result": {
    "alternative_holiday_days": 2,
    "alternative_holiday_payout": 653.85,
    "annual_leave_days": 12,
    "annual_leave_payout": 3923.08,
    "annual_salary": 85000,
    "daily_pay": 326.92,
    "excludes": [
      "Tax. Every figure is gross.",
      "The 8% of gross alternative for under a year of service",
      "Averaged pay for variable or irregular hours",
      "Part years of service",
      "Any garden leave or restraint of trade payment"
    ],
    "notes": [
      "Notice is being worked, so notice_payout is nil and the notice wages arrive as ordinary salary. total_all_in already includes them; total_package does not, because it is the final pay.",
      "All figures are GROSS. Redundancy compensation is an extra pay taxed at the lump sum rate, and holiday pay in a final pay has its own rules."
    ],
    "notice_payout": 0,
    "notice_wages": 6538.46,
    "notice_weeks": 4,
    "notice_worked": true,
    "outstanding_wages": 1500,
    "redundancy_clause": "2_weeks",
    "redundancy_clause_label": "2 weeks per year of service (16 weeks)",
    "redundancy_compensation": 26153.85,
    "statutory_position": "New Zealand has no statutory redundancy pay. Compensation is owed only if the employment agreement provides for it. The mandatory entitlements below are owed regardless.",
    "total_all_in": 38769.23,
    "total_mandatory": 6076.92,
    "total_package": 32230.77,
    "weekly_pay": 1634.62,
    "years_of_service": 8
  }
}

Changes

No recorded changes to this operation across all 1 revision of this API.