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Now is the ideal time to check your employment agreements.

Now is the ideal time to check your employment agreements.

Are your contracts up to date?

(On behalf of Employment New Zealand)

Following the recent minimum wage increase, now is the ideal time for you to ensure your business's employment agreements (contracts) are up to date.

You can use this as an opportunity to ensure you are meeting your legal obligations and build stronger staff relationships. Also, consider potential impacts of the minimum wage increase on internal wage relativity, external benchmarking and staff current and future pay expectations.

By law every employee must have a current written employment contract. It must state the wage rate or salary payable, which must be equal or more than the relevant minimum wage. With any changes of wages, the employer must send a contract variation letter advising of the new wage. Negotiated and used fairly such contracts can be a great foundation for win/win, productive employment relationships with your staff.

Employment New Zealand's Employment Agreement Builder tool can help you easily create new contracts. It covers what you must do by law, and also sets out common mistakes and how to avoid them. The tool notes three types of clauses: "Mandatory", "Recommended" and "Optional". We estimate it has been used for 950,000 contracts since it was launched five years ago.

On April 1, the adult minimum wage increased from $18.90 to $20.00 gross per hour, and the starting-out and training minimum wage increased from $15.12 to $16.00 gross per hour.

For more information on contracts go to employment.govt.nz - use search word "employment agreements".