Bereavement Leave Calculator NZ 2026
This calculator checks bereavement leave entitlement in New Zealand and prices what the leave costs an employer. You choose the relationship, enter how long the person has worked for you and their usual hours, and it tells you whether they qualify, how many days they are entitled to, and what those days cost once pay, employer on-costs and any cover are counted. The entitlement itself is short and specific: three days for each bereavement in the immediate family, which covers a parent, child, partner or spouse, grandparent, grandchild, brother or sister and parent-in-law, and also applies to a miscarriage or stillbirth; and one day for anyone else where the employer accepts that a bereavement has occurred. The point most often missed is that bereavement leave is per bereavement rather than per year, so there is no annual cap, and someone who loses two immediate family members in the same year is entitled to three days for each. Eligibility turns on six months of current continuous employment, or six months of work averaging at least ten hours a week. That is an either, not a both, and the second route exists so part time and irregular workers are not shut out of an entitlement they plainly need. Leave can be taken at any time connected with the bereavement and the days need not run together. It is built for employers and managers who need a clear answer quickly, at a moment when nobody wants to be reading legislation.
They qualify: six months of continuous employment is met. Bereavement leave is per bereavement, so a second bereavement in the same year carries its own fresh entitlement.
How it works
Eligibility is checked first. Six months of current continuous employment qualifies on its own. If the work has not been continuous, six months of work averaging at least ten hours a week qualifies instead. Only one of the two has to be satisfied. If neither is, there is no statutory entitlement, although an employer can always grant leave anyway and many do. Entitlement is then three days for an immediate family bereavement, including a miscarriage or stillbirth, or one day otherwise. The cost adds the days of pay, the employer KiwiSaver and ACC work levy that ride on that pay, and the cost of covering the shifts if you are covering them. Bereavement leave is granted per bereavement rather than per year, so this calculation applies again in full to any later bereavement.
Worked example
Someone has worked for you continuously for twelve months, usually forty hours a week, and their daily pay is $240. Their grandparent dies, which is an immediate family bereavement, so they are entitled to three days. Three days of pay is $720, and with employer KiwiSaver at 3.5 percent and an ACC work levy of 0.67 percent the loaded figure is about $750. Covering those three days with someone at $30 an hour for eight hours a day costs another $720. The bereavement therefore costs about $1,470 in total. If the same person had a second bereavement later in the year, they would be entitled to another three days in full, because the entitlement is not capped annually.
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