Leave by country / New Zealand
New Zealand annual leave entitlement
How much paid leave people in New Zealand get, what happens to unused days, and what you owe when someone leaves — in plain English, whether you run a team there or work on one.
New Zealand guarantees a statutory minimum of 20 paid annual holiday days per year (4 weeks on a five-day week) under the Holidays Act 2003, available after 12 months of continuous employment. Untaken annual holidays never expire and must be paid out when employment ends; up to one week a year may be cashed out at the employee’s request.
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What the law actually says
The Holidays Act 2003 gives every employee four weeks of paid annual holidays after each 12 months of continuous employment. Employees on genuine fixed-term or intermittent work may instead receive 8% of gross earnings with each pay. Accrued but untaken annual holidays do not expire and are paid out when employment ends.
Worth knowing: Unusually, an employee may ask to cash out up to one week of annual holidays each year; the employer may decline. New Zealand also observes twelve public holidays, separate from annual holidays.
What happens to unused leave in New Zealand
Annual leave in New Zealand does not expire. It accumulates from year to year until it is either taken or paid out, which means a long-serving employee can hold a substantial balance and that balance is a real financial liability on the employer's books.
When employment ends, the untaken balance must be paid. This is the rule across the European Union and Australia, and it is the sharpest contrast with the United States, where whether unused time is paid out depends entirely on which state the employee works in.
If you run a team in New Zealand
- Write the entitlement into every contract. At least 20 days; more is fine, less is void. Collective agreements may add to it.
- Track accrual and carryover to the day, with a record of every approval. When someone leaves, the untaken balance is money you owe, and you will need to show how you got to the number.
- Budget for the payout. Every unused day on the books is a liability at that person's current pay rate — it does not disappear at year end.
If you work in New Zealand
- Check your contract gives at least 20 days. Anything less is unenforceable.
- Keep your own record of approved leave. Payroll systems get changed; your notes don't.
- When you leave, untaken statutory leave must be paid out. It cannot be forfeited.
Countries with the same 20-day minimum
Calculating an employee's balance
Entitlement is the starting point; the working number is what an individual has actually accrued at a given date. Our accrual calculator converts an annual entitlement into a per-pay-period figure and a current balance.
Tracking New Zealand leave correctly
Because untaken leave is money the employer owes, the balance has to be provable. Spreadsheets fail at exactly the moment they matter — when someone disputes what they were owed on their last day and nobody can reconstruct the record.
For a single-country team, Leavo handles New Zealand accrual rules, carryover and approvals with a full audit trail. If you employ people in more than one country, statutory entitlements, carryover rules and payout obligations differ in every one — that is the case for a platform like Deel that handles multi-country employment rather than leave alone. We compare the options in our leave management software guide.
New Zealand annual leave: common questions
How many paid annual leave days are employees entitled to in New Zealand?
20 working days is the statutory minimum in New Zealand, equivalent to 4 weeks on a five-day working week, under Holidays Act 2003. Employers and collective agreements may grant more, never less.
Must unused annual leave be paid out when employment ends in New Zealand?
Yes. Payment in lieu of untaken statutory leave is required when the employment relationship ends in New Zealand. During employment, cash-out is limited: up to one week a year, at the employee’s request.
Can an employer in New Zealand refuse a leave request?
An employer can usually influence when leave is taken for operational reasons, but cannot deny the entitlement itself. The right to the minimum number of days is statutory and cannot be contracted away.
Do public holidays count towards the 20-day entitlement in New Zealand?
No. Public holidays are separate from the 20-day statutory annual leave entitlement in New Zealand.
Source
Primary source: Holidays Act 2003. Statutory minimums change, and collective agreements frequently exceed them — confirm against the current text before acting. See our methodology.