New Zealand only

If an employee is paid an annual salary, there's an option in their record to protect their minimum wage. Select this option and enter the current minimum wage rate. This doesn't apply to hourly based employees. Learn about Updating an employee's details.

What does this option do?

Employees who are paid an annual salary might not get additional pay if they work extra hours. So if an employee works enough extra hours that their average hourly rate drops below the New Zealand minimum, they must be paid extra to ‘top up’ their average hourly rate to the minimum. This often affects seasonal workers, like fruit pickers and sheep shearers, who work more than their contracted hours during the busiest part of the season.

The option shown above lets you choose to automatically top up employees’ wages if they drop below the minimum hourly rate (check the current minimum wage rates).

During the pay run

If the hours entered for a salaried employee are greater than their contracted hours, their hourly rate will be averaged. Here's an example where the hours are increased from 40 to 50 which reduces their hourly rate.

If the employee works enough hours that their average hourly rate falls below minimum wage, and the above option has been selected, a pay item is automatically added to their pay to bring the average hourly rate up to the minimum.