New Zealand wages & real incomes
A pay rise only counts if it beats inflation. This page tracks nominal wages against the Consumer Price Index to show whether New Zealanders are actually getting ahead.
Prices have grown faster than wages since 2020: the average worker's pay buys less than it did.
Minimum wage vs the Living Wage, 2013–present
Adult minimum wage, dollars per hour. Steps mark annual April adjustments; the Living Wage is voluntary and updates each September.
*Click on the indicator key to hide or show indicators
Source: Employment New Zealand (MBIE), Living Wage Movement Aotearoa New ZealandThe Real Economy (opens the full chart page)
What this means
- Nominal wage growth is the pay rise on paper. Real wage growth subtracts inflation: it is what your pay can actually buy. The 'Am I better off?' calculator does the same sum for your own pay.
- Minimum-wage workers saw the biggest nominal increases over this period, but housing and food costs rose faster than the overall CPI for much of it. See how the minimum wage is set.
- The wage index here is Stats NZ's Labour Cost Index (LCI) - the cost of the same jobs over time, unaffected by people changing roles. That makes it more stable than average earnings, but it doesn't capture bonuses or overtime.
Wage index, wage inflation and the unemployment rate are live from Stats NZ. Minimum wage is live from Employment New Zealand's published rate history. The Living Wage is live too, manually entered from the Living Wage Movement's own published rate history, since no machine-readable historical file is available.