Living Wage Calculator

This calculator compares your hourly pay against the New Zealand living wage and the legal minimum wage, so you can see exactly where you sit and what closing the gap would be worth. The living wage is a voluntary rate set each year to cover the basic costs of living, higher than the minimum wage employers are legally required to pay, and the difference is often discussed in the abstract without anyone working out what it means for a real pay packet. You enter your hourly rate, the hours you work each week, and the current living wage and minimum wage rates, all pre-filled with figures you can overwrite. The calculator then shows where your pay sits, whether below the minimum wage, between the minimum and the living wage, or at or above the living wage, along with the weekly gap to the living wage, the annual gap in gross dollars, and how much you earn above the minimum wage each year. It is useful for workers checking their pay against the living wage benchmark, and for employers weighing up what becoming a living wage employer would cost. Because both rates change every year, enter the current figures rather than relying on the defaults, and treat the results as an estimate for comparison rather than an exact payroll calculation.

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