Notice Period Calculator NZ 2026
New Zealand is unusual in having no statutory notice period for most employees. There is no legislated minimum of one week per year of service or anything like it; what governs is your employment agreement, and if the agreement is silent the law implies a term of reasonable notice assessed on the facts of the role. That makes the first question about notice always the same: what does the agreement actually say. From there the arithmetic is straightforward, and the distinctions that matter are about how the notice is served rather than how long it is. Working it out, being placed on garden leave, and being paid in lieu all produce similar money and quite different consequences for when your employment ends, whether you keep accruing leave, and how the payment is taxed.
Your notice
The three ways notice is served
| Method | When employment ends | Leave accrual | Tax treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worked out normally | At the end of the notice period | Continues to the final day | Ordinary pay through the period |
| Garden leave | At the end of the notice period | Continues to the final day | Ordinary pay through the period |
| Paid in lieu | Immediately | Stops at the last day worked | Extra pay, taxed on annualised income |
Why there is no statutory notice period here
Many countries legislate a minimum notice scale that rises with service. New Zealand does not, for most employees, and the practical consequence is that the employment agreement carries the whole weight. A well-drafted agreement states a notice period for each side, often the same length, and that is the end of the question. A silent agreement pushes both parties into the implied term of reasonable notice, which is genuinely uncertain: it depends on seniority, length of service, how specialised the role is and how long a replacement would take to find. That uncertainty is bad for everyone, which is why the single most useful thing to check before resigning or dismissing is what the agreement says.
Garden leave keeps the relationship alive
Being sent home on full pay during notice is not the same as the employment ending. On garden leave you remain an employee: you continue to accrue annual leave, your service continues to count, and you remain bound by your duties to the employer including confidentiality and the duty of good faith. That last point is the reason employers use it. Someone who has resigned to join a competitor can be kept away from clients and information for the notice period while still being unable to start the new job, because they are still employed.
Payment in lieu ends things immediately, and that has costs
Paying out the notice rather than serving it looks equivalent in cash and is not equivalent in effect. The employment ends on the day, so leave stops accruing, service stops counting, and any entitlement that depends on being employed on a particular date is lost. The payment is treated as an extra pay for PAYE, so tax is calculated on annualised income rather than through the ordinary weekly tables, and the deduction on the day is usually higher than people expect. It also needs a basis: an employer cannot simply substitute money for notice unless the agreement allows it or the employee agrees.
Worked example
An employee on $1,500.00 a week has a 4 week notice period and gives notice on Monday 10 August 2026. Four weeks is 28 days, so their last day of employment is Monday 7 September 2026.
The notice period is worth $6,000.00 gross, or $214.29 a day. Because they are working the notice out normally, they remain employed to the final day and continue to accrue annual leave throughout, and the pay is taxed as ordinary pay rather than as an extra pay.
How this is calculated
Notice in weeks is converted to calendar days by multiplying by seven, and notice in months by adding that number of months to the date given. The last day of employment is the date notice was given plus the notice period, since notice runs from the day it is given. Notice pay is the notice period in weeks multiplied by weekly gross pay, and the daily equivalent is weekly pay divided by seven, which is the calendar-day basis the period itself uses. Where notice is paid in lieu, the employment end date is shown as immediate and leave accrual is marked as stopping, since the relationship ends on the day.
Official sources
- Notice periods, Employment New Zealand
- Employment Relations Act 2000, legislation.govt.nz
- Resignation, Employment New Zealand
- Lump sum payments, Inland Revenue, for payment in lieu
Related NZ calculators
- Final Pay Calculator for everything owed on your last day
- Annual Leave Calculator for the balance paid out
- Redundancy Entitlement Calculator if the reason is redundancy
- Lump Sum and Redundancy Tax Calculator for tax on a payment in lieu
- 90-Day Trial Eligibility Checker if a trial period is being relied on
- 90-Day Trials and Money Risks
- Reading Your Employment Agreement
This page explains how the law works and estimates figures from what you enter. It cannot tell you what will happen in your situation, because employment outcomes turn on facts, evidence and the wording of your own agreement. Nothing here creates a lawyer and client relationship.
It has not been reviewed by a lawyer. The legal descriptions are drawn from Employment New Zealand, MBIE and Inland Revenue and were checked against those sources on 7 August 2026. They are our reading of published guidance, not a practitioner's opinion, and parts of this area are very new: the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026 has been in force only since 21 February 2026 and there is little case law on how it will be applied.
Where an agreement is silent, reasonable notice is assessed on the facts and cannot be calculated. Any figure shown for that case is an illustration only.
Before you act, get advice. A community law centre is free. Employment New Zealand provides free information and mediation. An employment lawyer will tell you things no calculator can. Time limits are short and unforgiving: a personal grievance must generally be raised within 90 days, so seek advice early rather than waiting for certainty.
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