Calculate exactly how much of your pay rise lands in your bank account after PAYE, KiwiSaver, ACC and Student Loan deductions.
Every pay rise in New Zealand is affected differently depending on your income, KiwiSaver contribution rate and whether you have a student loan. Here's a simple explanation of each deduction.
1
Current Salary
Current salary $65,000 → New annual salary $70,000
2
Deductions
ACC earner levy (1.75%) is always applied on salary up to $156,641.
Your Pay Rise: Gross vs Take-Home
Gross Rise
$5,000/yr
Annual increase
Extra Take-Home
$2,638/yr
Annual after deductions
Extra Per Week
$50.72
Take-home increase
You Keep
53c
of every $1 earned
Extra per fortnight$101.44
Extra per month$219.79
Full breakdown
Click a slice or legend item to see its share of your gross salary.
Take-home (net)$47,60068.0% of gross
Gross salary$70,000
Take-home comparison
Current Take-home$44,962
After Pay Rise$47,600
Why isn't my take-home pay the same as my pay rise?
A pay rise is calculated on your gross salary, but several deductions are taken out before the money reaches you. Here is what each one does in plain English.
PAYE (Income Tax)
Pay As You Earn tax is deducted by your employer before your salary reaches your bank account. It is calculated using New Zealand's progressive tax brackets, which means the more you earn, the higher the rate of tax on the top portion of your income.
KiwiSaver
Your KiwiSaver contribution rate is 3.5% by default, or you can choose 4%, 6%, 8% or 10%. A temporary reduction to 3% is available. Your contribution comes straight out of gross pay and goes into your retirement savings account.
Student Loan
If you have a New Zealand student loan and earn above the repayment threshold, 12% of every dollar over that threshold is deducted from your pay. This is on top of PAYE and also reduces the amount that lands in your bank account.
ACC (Earner Levy)
The ACC Earners' Levy covers New Zealand's accident insurance scheme. It is a small percentage of your earnings up to a yearly maximum and is automatically deducted from your pay.
Bonus & employer contributions
The hidden parts of your package.
One-off bonus
See exactly where a lump-sum bonus goes. Taxed on top of your current salary at your marginal rate.
$
Annual take-home
$47,600
+$2,638 extra vs salary only
Salary only$44,962
Salary + bonus$47,600
Net in your bank
$2,638
53c of every $1
PAYE (marginal)
$1,500
30.0%
KiwiSaver
$175
3.5%
ACC + Student Loan
$688
13.8%
Net $2,638PAYE $1,500KiwiSaver $175ACC $87.50Student loan $600
Employer contributions
Most people underestimate this. Your employer's KiwiSaver contribution has ESCT (tax) taken out before it lands in your fund.
$
Health insurance, extra super, allowances, etc.
Employer KiwiSaver
$2,275
3.5% of salary
ESCT withheld
$683
30.0% tier
Net into KiwiSaver
$1,593
Lands in your fund
Total package value
$66,593
+2.5% on top of salary
How this works: Your employer pays $2,275 per year into KiwiSaver on top of your salary. ESCT (Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax) at 30.0% is deducted first, so $1,593 actually lands in your fund. Combined with other benefits, your true annual package is $66,593.
How a pay rise is actually taxed in New Zealand
A pay rise almost never feels as big as the number in the letter, and people usually assume payroll has made a mistake. It hasn't. New Zealand taxes income in slices, and a rise sits entirely on top of the slices you already earn — so it is taxed at your highest rate, not your average rate. Once you understand that one idea, everything else on your payslip makes sense.
Marginal rate versus effective rate
Your effective rate is the total tax you pay divided by your whole salary. Your marginal rate is the rate applied to your next dollar earned. Because the lower slices of your income are taxed at the lower band rates, your effective rate is always lower than your marginal rate — and it is the marginal rate, not the effective one, that determines what a rise is worth.
Slice of income
Tax rate on that slice
$0 to $15,600
10.50%
$15,600 to $53,500
17.50%
$53,500 to $78,100
30.00%
$78,100 to $180,000
33.00%
Every dollar over $180,000
39.00%
A worked before-and-after: $80,000 to $88,000
Take someone on $80,000 with an M tax code and a 3.5% KiwiSaver contribution. Their take-home is about $59,523 a year. After an $8,000 rise to $88,000, take-home becomes about $64,463 — an extra $4,940 a year, or roughly $95 a week. That is 62 cents of every dollar of the rise.
Add a student loan and the same rise is worth only about $3,980 a year — 50 cents in the dollar — because 12% of the increase goes straight to the loan. Nothing has gone wrong; the loan repayment is simply the largest single reason a rise feels thin.
The four things taking a bite
PAYE income tax at your marginal band rate — the biggest single deduction, and the only one that steps up as you cross a threshold.
ACC earners' levy at 1.75% of liable earnings. Small, flat, and often mistaken for extra income tax.
KiwiSaver at your chosen employee rate. This one is your money — it lands in your retirement account rather than being lost, but it does reduce the cash in your bank today.
Student loan at 12% of everything above $24,128 a year. It behaves like a second marginal rate stacked on top of PAYE.
What to do at each income band
Under $55,000
You keep a high share of any rise, so this is the cheapest point in your career to lift your KiwiSaver rate — the take-home hit is small and the compounding runs for decades. Check you are on the right code: the ME independent earner threshold can be worth real money here.
$55,000 to $80,000
This is where crossing a bracket makes rises feel flat. If you have a student loan, model the rise before you negotiate — a 12% repayment on top of a higher marginal rate can halve what you expected to keep.
$80,000 to $180,000
Non-cash parts of the package start to matter more than headline salary: employer KiwiSaver above the 3.5% minimum, extra leave, or a vehicle allowance often beat the after-tax value of the same dollars paid as wages.
Over $180,000
Every extra dollar sits in the top band, so bonuses and one-off payments are taxed hard. Timing a bonus across tax years, and checking your ESCT tier on employer contributions, is where the remaining leverage is.
Before your next pay review
1. Model the rise in take-home terms, not gross. Ask for the number that changes your bank balance.
2. Check your tax code with the tax code calculator. A wrong code costs more than most rises gain.
3. Compare your salary against the New Zealand median so your ask is anchored in data.
4. Look at the whole package — employer KiwiSaver, allowances and leave — with the KiwiSaver calculator.
Written and maintained by the Payrise NZ team. Last reviewed August 2026 against published Inland Revenue rates. General information only — see our disclaimer.
How pay rises are taxed in New Zealand
A pay rise is agreed in gross terms, but four separate deductions decide how much of it actually reaches your bank account: PAYE income tax, the ACC earner levy, your KiwiSaver contribution rate and — if you have one — student loan repayments. The guide below explains how each is calculated using current New Zealand settings, so you can sanity-check the numbers this calculator produces.
1. PAYE uses progressive brackets
New Zealand taxes income in slices. You do not pay your top rate on everything you earn — only on the dollars that fall inside that bracket. This is why a pay rise is taxed at your marginal rate, which is usually higher than your average rate.
New Zealand PAYE income tax brackets used by this calculator
Taxable income
PAYE rate
$0 – $15,600
10.5%
$15,601 – $53,500
17.5%
$53,501 – $78,100
30%
$78,101 – $180,000
33%
$180,001 and above
39%
Example: if a rise moves income from $52,000 to $56,000, part of the increase is taxed at 17.5% and the rest at 30% — which is why the take-home increase looks smaller than expected.
2. KiwiSaver scales with your salary
Employee contributions are a fixed percentage of gross pay (3.5% by default, or 4%, 6%, 8% or 10%), so the dollar amount rises automatically with your salary. That money is not lost — it lands in your retirement account — but it does reduce the cash difference you notice on payday. A temporary reduction to 3% is available. Your employer also contributes at least 3.5%, and that contribution is taxed separately through ESCT before it reaches your fund.
3. Student loan repayments
If you have a New Zealand student loan, 12% of every dollar earned above $24,128 a year is deducted. Because the repayment is a flat percentage of income above the threshold, a pay rise almost always increases it — effectively adding 12% to the deduction rate on the rise itself.
4. ACC earner levy
The ACC earner levy funds cover for non-work injuries and is charged on earnings up to $156,641 a year. It is a small deduction, but it applies to bonuses and lump sums as well as regular pay.
What this means when you negotiate
Think in take-home, not gross. Two offers with the same headline salary can land differently once KiwiSaver rate and student loan status are factored in.
Check the employer contribution. A higher employer KiwiSaver or super percentage can be worth more than a small salary bump — compare the true package value.
Bonuses are taxed at your top rate. A one-off payment sits on top of your salary, so more of it goes to PAYE than your usual pay does.
Model before you accept. Save a few scenarios above and compare take-home side by side, then share or export the result.
Rates shown reflect the settings used in this calculator and are sourced from Inland Revenue. They are reviewed regularly and provided as an estimate, not tax advice.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about why your take-home pay changes differently after a pay rise.
A pay rise is calculated on your gross salary, before any deductions. PAYE tax, KiwiSaver, ACC and student loan are all worked out on your new, higher salary, so each deduction usually increases too. What is left after those deductions is your take-home increase.
New Zealand uses progressive PAYE brackets. As your income moves into higher brackets, the dollars in those brackets are taxed at a higher rate. A pay rise can push some of your income into the next bracket, which means a larger share of the rise goes to PAYE.
Your KiwiSaver contribution is a percentage of your gross pay. When your salary goes up, the dollar amount you contribute also goes up. That means part of your rise is automatically directed into retirement savings rather than your bank account.
Yes. If you have a New Zealand student loan, 12% of every dollar you earn above the repayment threshold is deducted. A higher salary means more of your income is above that threshold, so your student loan repayments increase and your net pay rise is smaller.
The ACC earner levy is a small percentage of your earnings that funds New Zealand's accident insurance scheme. It is deducted automatically from your pay up to a yearly maximum. It applies to salary and most lump-sum payments too.
Bonuses are usually taxed at your marginal tax rate because they sit on top of your regular salary. That often means a higher percentage of a bonus goes to PAYE than your usual pay. The calculator breaks this down so you can see the net amount.
ESCT stands for Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax. Your employer's KiwiSaver contribution is taxed before it reaches your fund. The ESCT rate depends on your total salary plus the employer contribution, so a higher salary can move you into a higher ESCT tier.
The calculator uses current New Zealand PAYE brackets, ACC levy rates and student loan settings to give a close estimate. Actual pay slips may vary slightly depending on your employer's payroll system, tax code, timing, and any other deductions.
Pay & tax guides
Longer reads that explain the rules behind the numbers — KiwiSaver rates and withdrawals, tax brackets, tax codes and secondary tax.
