How much does my employer have to contribute to KiwiSaver?

Employers must make a compulsory contribution on top of your own for eligible employees. Under changes announced in Budget 2025 the compulsory rate rises from 3% to 3.5% from 1 April 2026 and to 4% from 1 April 2028. Some employers pay more than the minimum.

What is ESCT and why is my employer contribution smaller than expected?

ESCT is Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax. It is deducted from the employer's contribution before the money reaches your KiwiSaver account, so a 3.5% employer contribution lands as less than 3.5% in your fund. The ESCT rate depends on your salary plus the employer contribution and ranges from 10.5% to 39%.

Do KiwiSaver contributions reduce my take-home pay?

Yes. Your own KiwiSaver contribution comes out of your gross pay after PAYE is calculated, so choosing a higher rate reduces the cash that reaches your bank account even though your total savings increase.

Which KiwiSaver contribution rate can I choose?

The default employee rate is 3.5%. Employees can choose 4%, 6%, 8% or 10%, while a temporary rate reduction can lower the rate to 3% for 3 to 12 months.

Back to the calculator

KiwiSaver Calculator NZ

See exactly what you put in, what your employer adds, how much ESCT the taxman takes out of the employer's share, and what the whole lot could be worth by the time you retire.

Your details

Annual gross salary or wage

Your contribution rate

Employer contribution rate

The compulsory employer rate rose to 3.5% on 1 April 2026 and is legislated to rise to 4% from 1 April 2028. Check your employment agreement — some employers pay more.

Where every KiwiSaver dollar goes

You contribute

$2,450

$47 a week, from your gross pay

Employer contributes

$2,450

before ESCT is deducted

Lands in your fund

$4,165

per year, both contributions combined

Annual KiwiSaver contribution breakdown including ESCT
Component	Rate	Per year
Your contribution	3.5%	$2,450
Employer contribution (gross)	3.5%	$2,450
Less ESCT	30%	−$735
Employer contribution (net into fund)	—	$1,715
Total invested each year	—	$4,165

On $70,000 a year, contributing 3.5% leaves you with about $53,105 in take-home pay after PAYE, the ACC earner levy and KiwiSaver — roughly $1,021 a week.

What it could grow to

A simple projection assuming your salary and contribution rates stay the same and returns are steady. Real returns vary year to year and fees and tax on fund earnings are not included.

Years of contributing: 20

Assumed annual return

Total contributed

$83,300

Investment growth

$61,306

Projected balance

$144,606

KiwiSaver, in plain English

Your contribution: The default rate is 3.5% of gross pay. You can choose 4%, 6%, 8% or 10%, or apply for a temporary reduction to 3%. It comes out of every payday alongside PAYE, so a higher rate means more savings but less cash in hand right now.
Employer contribution: Your employer must add a compulsory contribution on top for eligible employees. This is genuinely extra money — it is not deducted from your pay.
ESCT (Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax): The employer's contribution is taxed before it reaches your account. The rate steps up with your total income, from 10.5% to 39%, which is why a 3.5% employer contribution arrives as $1,715 rather than $2,450 on this salary.
Government contribution: The Government also tops up eligible members' accounts each year based on what they have contributed. Eligibility rules and the amount are set by Inland Revenue, so check ird.govt.nz/kiwisaver for the current settings. It is not included in the projection above.

See how a pay rise changes your KiwiSaver

What lifting your rate actually costs, and five rules people get wrong

Take someone on $75,000. At the 3.5% default their own contribution is $2,625 a year. At 6% it is $4,500 — about $36 a week less in the bank. Nothing about their PAYE changes, because employee KiwiSaver comes out of pay that has already been taxed. That is the whole trade: today's spending money for a balance that compounds for decades.

Assuming the employer 3.5% is always on top of your salary. It usually is, but some New Zealand employment agreements are written as "total remuneration", where the employer contribution is carved out of the package figure you agreed. If your offer quotes one number "inclusive of KiwiSaver", raising your own rate does not add anything from your employer — check the wording before you compare two job offers.
Forgetting ESCT shrinks the employer contribution. Employer superannuation contribution tax is deducted from your employer's 3.5% before it reaches your account. So a 3.5% employer contribution does not land as a full 3.5% — the higher your total pay, the higher the ESCT tier and the smaller the net amount credited. Projections that ignore ESCT overstate your balance.
Contributing too little to earn the full government contribution. The government member tax credit is paid on your own contributions up to an annual cap, counted over the KiwiSaver year to 30 June — not the tax year. Part-year employment, unpaid leave or a low-income year can leave you short of the amount needed for the maximum, and the shortfall cannot be made up later unless you top up voluntarily before the cut-off.
Treating a savings suspension as free. While your contributions are suspended, your employer contributions stop too and you earn no government contribution for that period. A twelve-month pause in your twenties costs far more than the contributions themselves, because it is the compounding years you lose.
Planning to withdraw the lot for a first home. A first-home withdrawal must leave a minimum balance in the account, and the government contributions you have received are not all withdrawable. Work out your deposit from the withdrawable portion, not the headline balance, before you sign anything.

If you are weighing a contribution increase against a pay rise, run the rise through the pay rise calculator first: a 4% rise with the 3.5% default often leaves you better off week to week than the same rise at 8%.

How we calculate this

This page shows what a KiwiSaver contribution rate costs you in take-home pay today, and what it is likely to be worth at 65. Every figure on this page is worked out in your browser from the rates listed below — nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored.

1Apply the default 3.5% employee rate, a higher chosen rate of 4%, 6%, 8% or 10%, or the temporary 3% reduction to gross pay.
2Work out the tax you still pay on that gross income — KiwiSaver comes out of after-tax pay, so contributing does not reduce your PAYE.
3Add the employer contribution and reduce it by the applicable ESCT tier.
4Project the balance forward with compounding on the combined annual contribution.
5Compare rates side by side so you can see the real weekly cost of stepping up.

Rates and thresholds in use

Income tax bands: $0–$15,600 at 10.50%; $15,600–$53,500 at 17.50%; $53,500–$78,100 at 30.00%; $78,100–$180,000 at 33.00%; over $180,000 at 39.00%.
ACC earners' levy: 1.75% of liable earnings.
Student loan: 12% of every dollar earned above $24,128 a year.
KiwiSaver employee rates: 3.5% by default, or 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% of gross pay; a temporary reduction to 3% is available.

Last reviewed August 2026 by the Payrise NZ team. We re-check these settings whenever Inland Revenue, MBIE or ACC announce a change, and update this page the same week.

Sources: Inland Revenue — KiwiSaver.

Keep going with the rest of the toolkit — each one uses the same up-to-date New Zealand tax settings.