Timesheet Calculator NZ 2026

This calculator adds up a weekly timesheet and turns it into hours and pay. You enter a start and finish time for each day and the unpaid break minutes, and it returns the hours worked each day, the total for the week, how those hours split between ordinary time and overtime, and the gross pay before tax. It handles the two things that make timesheet arithmetic annoying by hand: breaks, which come out of the paid total only when they are unpaid, and shifts that cross midnight, where a finish time earlier than the start time means the shift ran into the next day. In New Zealand there is no legal requirement to pay a premium for overtime at all. Whether overtime exists, the hours it starts after, and the rate it is paid at are set by your employment agreement or a collective agreement, so the threshold and multiplier here are yours to change rather than a rule imposed by law. What the law does require is that pay never falls below the minimum wage of $23.95 an hour for every hour actually worked, and this page tells you your effective hourly rate so you can check that. Rest breaks are paid and meal breaks are usually unpaid, so enter only the unpaid minutes. It is built for anyone filling in or checking a timesheet: employees confirming a pay run is right, managers approving hours, and small business owners running payroll without a payroll system.

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DayStartFinishUnpaid break (min)Hours
Monday8.50
Tuesday8.50
Wednesday8.50
Thursday8.50
Friday7.50
Saturday0.00
Sunday0.00
$
x
41.50
hours worked this week, after unpaid breaks
Ordinary hours40.00
Overtime hours1.50
Gross pay$1,267.50
Effective rate$30.54

Every hour is above the $23.95 minimum wage. Overtime rules come from your employment agreement, not from the law. Gross pay is before PAYE, KiwiSaver and any student loan deduction.

How it works

Each day's hours are the finish time less the start time, less the unpaid break. A finish time earlier than the start time is treated as a shift that ran past midnight, so 22:00 to 06:00 counts as eight hours on the day it began. The week's total is the sum of the days. Hours up to your overtime threshold are ordinary time and are paid at the ordinary rate; hours above it are paid at the ordinary rate times your multiplier. Gross pay is the two added together. The effective rate divides gross pay by total hours, which is the figure to compare against the minimum wage of $23.95 an hour, because that test applies to every hour actually worked rather than to your nominal rate.

Worked example

Someone works 08:00 to 17:00 from Monday to Thursday and 08:00 to 16:00 on Friday, taking an unpaid 30 minute lunch each day. Monday to Thursday are nine hours less the half hour break, so 8.5 hours each, and Friday is 7.5 hours. That is 41.5 hours for the week. With overtime starting after 40 hours, 40 hours are ordinary time at $30.00 and 1.5 hours are overtime at $45.00. Gross pay is $1,200.00 plus $67.50, which is $1,267.50, and the effective rate across all 41.5 hours is $30.54 an hour.

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Data sources: the rates and rules on this page are maintained against Employment New Zealand. Figures are checked twice monthly.

Frequently asked questions

Are rest and meal breaks paid in New Zealand?

Rest breaks are paid and meal breaks are unpaid unless your employment agreement says otherwise. So a 10 minute morning tea break stays in your paid hours, while a 30 minute lunch break usually comes out of them. Enter only the unpaid break minutes in this calculator, because the paid ones are already inside the start and finish times.

Is overtime compulsory to pay in New Zealand?

There is no legal requirement in New Zealand to pay a higher rate for overtime. Whether overtime exists at all, the hours it starts after and the rate it is paid at all come from your employment agreement or collective agreement. What the law does require is that total pay never falls below the minimum wage for every hour worked.

How do I handle a shift that runs past midnight?

Enter the finish time as it appears on the clock, for example a shift from 22:00 to 06:00. This calculator treats a finish time earlier than the start time as running into the next day and adds the hours to the day the shift started on, which is how most payroll systems record it.