Roster Cost Calculator NZ 2026
This calculator costs a published weekly roster, so you know what a week of trading takes out of the business before you publish it rather than after payroll runs. You set a base hourly rate, then for each day of the week enter how many staff are on, how many hours each of them works, and the rate multiplier that applies to that day. It returns the total wage cost for the week, the penal premium you are paying above ordinary time, the total hours rostered, the average cost of an hour and the annualised figure. It also adds employer on-costs, because a roster costed at wages alone understates the real number: employer KiwiSaver of at least 3.5 percent and the ACC work levy are both cash out the door on top of every hour. Two things about penal rates in New Zealand are worth knowing before you fill this in. Outside a collective agreement there is no legal requirement to pay more for weekend or night work, so those multipliers are whatever your employment agreements say and are yours to set here. The exception is a public holiday, which must be paid at no less than time and a half, and which also earns an alternative holiday if it was an otherwise working day, a second cost that lands in a later week. It is built for cafe, bar, retail and hospitality owners, duty managers building a roster to a budget, and anyone who has ever published a roster and been surprised by the wage bill.
| Day | Staff on | Hours each | Rate multiplier | Wage cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | $624 | |||
| Tuesday | $624 | |||
| Wednesday | $624 | |||
| Thursday | $624 | |||
| Friday | $832 | |||
| Saturday | $1,040 | |||
| Sunday | $936 |
The penal premium is what the multipliers add above paying every hour at the base rate. On-costs are employer KiwiSaver and the ACC work levy, which is set by your industry classification. A public holiday also earns an alternative holiday if it is an otherwise working day, and that cost falls in a later week rather than this one.
How it works
Each day's hours are the number of staff on times the hours each of them works. The wage cost for that day is those hours times the base rate times the day's multiplier. The week's wages are the sum of the days. The penal premium is the difference between that total and what the same hours would have cost at the base rate throughout, so it isolates what the multipliers are costing you. On-costs add employer KiwiSaver and the ACC work levy as percentages of wages. The average cost per hour divides the full cost including on-costs by the hours rostered, which is the number to compare against a charge-out rate or a menu price. The annualised figure multiplies the weekly total by 52 and assumes this roster repeats.
Worked example
A cafe on a $26.00 base rate rosters three staff for eight hours each from Monday to Thursday, four on Friday, four on Saturday at a 1.25 multiplier and three on Sunday at 1.5. That is 184 hours for the week. Monday to Thursday cost $624 a day, Friday $832, Saturday $1,040 and Sunday $936, so wages are $5,304. At the base rate throughout those 184 hours would have cost $4,784, so the penal premium is $520. Employer KiwiSaver at 3.5 percent adds $185.64 and the ACC work levy at 0.67 percent adds $35.54, bringing the roster to about $5,525 for the week, $30.03 an hour, and roughly $287,309 a year if the roster repeats.
Related calculators
- Shift Penal Rates: one shift, including public holidays.
- Timesheet: what was actually worked against what was rostered.
- Labour Cost Percentage: this roster as a share of revenue.
- Overtime or a New Hire: when covering gaps with overtime stops being cheaper.
- FTE: the same team expressed as full time equivalent.
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