New Zealand: a holiday week can be worth more than a normal week
Dividing a salary by 2,080 hours works in most countries. In New Zealand it quietly understates what you earn, because of how the Holidays Act 2003 pays annual leave.
A week of annual holiday is paid at the greater of ordinary weekly pay or average weekly earnings, compared each time you take leave. Ordinary weekly pay is what your agreement gives you for a normal week. Average weekly earnings is your gross earnings over the previous twelve months divided by 52, and it sweeps in overtime, commission and productivity payments.
So if you work overtime or earn commission, your average weekly earnings exceed your ordinary weekly pay, and every week of leave is paid at the higher figure. Four weeks a year at a premium is real money, and a flat hourly conversion misses it entirely. If your pay is steady, the two measures coincide and nothing changes.
Public holidays are on top of the four weeks
The twenty days of annual leave are separate from public holidays, which do not come out of that balance. If a public holiday falls while you are on annual leave, you are not charged a day of leave for it.
Whether you are paid for one turns on the "otherwise a working day" test: would you have worked that day had it not been a holiday. That is judged on your agreement, your usual pattern of work, your roster and what both sides reasonably expected, and no single factor decides it. Work a public holiday and you get at least time and a half plus an alternative day off.
KiwiSaver comes out of gross, and may already be inside the offer
Two things to get right before converting a salary.
First, KiwiSaver is deducted from gross pay, so it reduces take-home without changing the salary the hourly rate is derived from. The default employee rate is now 3.5%, and the compulsory employer contribution is also 3.5%, both having risen from 3% on 1 April 2026, with a further rise to 4% due on 1 April 2028.
Second, the total remuneration trap. An employer may quote a package with the employer contribution folded inside it. Inland Revenue is explicit that contributions must be paid on top of the package if they are not already included, and that an employee must still receive at least the minimum wage excluding any employer contribution. If your offer is stated as total remuneration, the cash salary behind your hourly rate is lower than the headline.
For reference, the adult minimum wage from 1 April 2026 is 23.95 dollars an hour, with the starting-out and training rates at 19.16.