NZ $200k Personal Grievance Threshold Checker 2026
From 21 February 2026 New Zealand has, for the first time, an income level above which an employee cannot challenge a dismissal as unjustified. The Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026 sets it at $200,000 of annual remuneration, and the word remuneration is doing a lot of work there: it is not your base salary. Bonuses, overtime, allowances, tips, restrictive covenant payments and the value of employee share scheme benefits all count, which means people who think of themselves as earning well under $200,000 can be over the line once a good bonus year is included. Two things soften it. Agreements that already existed on 21 February 2026 get a transition period running to 21 February 2027, and any employer and employee can agree in writing that the threshold does not apply at all. This checker adds up what counts, tests it against the threshold, and tells you which of your grievance rights are actually affected, because most of them are not.
How your remuneration adds up
What the threshold does and does not touch
| Type of grievance | Affected by the threshold? |
|---|
Remuneration is much broader than salary
The threshold deliberately captures total remuneration rather than base pay, on the reasoning that senior pay is often structured with a modest salary and a large variable component. In practice that means a base of $180,000 with a $25,000 bonus is over the line, and so is a base of $170,000 with $35,000 of share scheme benefits. Anything that is genuinely part of what you are paid counts: salary, wages, allowances, overtime, annual and special bonuses, cashed in annual leave, payments for accepting a restrictive covenant, gratuities, back pay including back paid holiday pay, lump sum holiday pay, and employee share scheme benefits. What does not count is money that is not really pay: accident compensation earnings, employer superannuation contributions unless they are paid as salary and wages, certain reimbursements, and anything subject to fringe benefit tax.
Most of your grievance rights are untouched
This is the part that gets lost in the headlines. The threshold removes exactly two things: a personal grievance for unjustified dismissal, and a personal grievance for unjustified disadvantage where the disadvantage relates to the dismissal. Everything else survives. If you are discriminated against, you can still raise it. If you are sexually or racially harassed, you can still raise it. If you are unjustifiably disadvantaged in a way that has nothing to do with being dismissed, you can still raise it. A high earner is not outside the employment relations system; they have lost one specific claim.
The opt-back-in is negotiable, and worth negotiating
The Act allows an employer and employee to agree in writing that the threshold does not apply, and that agreement has to be a term of the employment agreement rather than a side letter or a verbal assurance. For anyone signing a new agreement above the threshold this is now a live negotiating point, in the same category as notice periods and restraint clauses. It costs an employer nothing to grant if they intend to dismiss fairly, which is a reasonable thing to say out loud during a negotiation. Once you have been dismissed it is far too late to ask.
Worked example
An employee has a base salary of $185,000.00, an annualised bonus of $20,000.00, no share scheme, and $7,000.00 of allowances and overtime. Their total remuneration is $212,000.00, which is $12,000.00 above the $200,000.00 threshold. On base salary alone they would have been comfortably under it, which is the trap.
Because their agreement predates 21 February 2026 and does not opt back in, the transition period applies: they can still raise an unjustified dismissal grievance until 21 February 2027. After that they cannot, unless they negotiate an opt-back-in term before then.
How this is calculated
Total remuneration is base salary plus bonuses plus share scheme benefits plus allowances, overtime and other qualifying payments, less any excluded amounts you have identified. That total is compared with the $200,000 threshold. If it is below, nothing changes and all grievances remain available. If it is at or above, the tool then checks two overrides in order: an opt-back-in term in your agreement restores the right entirely, and failing that an agreement predating 21 February 2026 preserves it until 21 February 2027 under the transition. Only if neither applies is the unjustified dismissal grievance unavailable, and even then only that grievance and a dismissal-related disadvantage claim.
Official sources
- Dismissal rules for high income earners, Employment New Zealand
- Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026, legislation.govt.nz
- Employment Relations Act 2000 amendments, MBIE
Related NZ calculators
- Personal Grievance Compensation Calculator for what a claim is worth if you can still bring one
- Contributory Conduct Remedy Calculator for the other 2026 change to remedies
- Final Pay Calculator for what you are owed on leaving
- Lump Sum and Redundancy Tax Calculator for the tax on an exit payment
- Redundancy Entitlement Calculator for a redundancy situation
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.
Whether a particular payment counts toward the $200,000 threshold, and whether the transition applies to you, both turn on the wording of your agreement. Do not conclude you have lost a right without checking.
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.