Pay Frequency Calculator
Pay frequency barely changes your tax. The same salary paid weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly or monthly produces the same annual PAYE to within a few cents, because every pay period is annualised before it is taxed. What frequency does change is your student loan threshold per period, and whether your year contains a 53rd pay.
The same salary on four pay cycles
| Paid | Gross | PAYE | KiwiSaver | Take-home | PAYE for the year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly52 pays a year | $1,500.00 | $326.64 | $52.50 | $1,120.86 | $16,985.28 |
| Fortnightly26 pays a year | $3,000.00 | $653.28 | $105.00 | $2,241.72 | $16,985.28 |
| Four-weekly13 pays a year | $6,000.00 | $1,306.56 | $210.00 | $4,483.44 | $16,985.28 |
| Monthly12 pays a year | $6,500.00 | $1,415.44 | $227.50 | $4,857.06 | $16,985.28 |
Tax on $78,000 of annual income, worked out once at the end of the year, is $16,985.50. None of the four cycles lands on that figure exactly, because each pay period is truncated to whole cents before it is paid. The gaps are settled at the end-of-year square-up.
Student loan thresholds by pay period
The 12% repayment applies to the gross above a threshold for your pay period, not above the annual figure. Inland Revenue publishes one for each cycle:
| Pay period | Threshold | Pays a year | Annual equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | $464.00 | 52 | $24,128.00 |
| Fortnightly | $928.00 | 26 | $24,128.00 |
| Four-weekly | $1,856.00 | 13 | $24,128.00 |
| Monthly | $2,010.66 | 12 | $24,127.92 |
The first three reconstruct the $24,128 annual threshold exactly. The monthly figure is $0.08 short of it across twelve pays, because $24,128 does not divide evenly by twelve. At 12% that is worth about a cent a year, which is the level of precision this calculation works at.
One rule matters more than the arithmetic: the threshold belongs to your main job only. On a secondary code the repayment is 12% of every dollar with no threshold at all. More on student loan repayments.
The 53-pay-week year
A tax year runs 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, which is 52 weeks and one day, or two days in a leap year. Every five or six years that extra day pushes a 53rd payday inside the same tax year for people paid weekly. You get an extra week of pay. Nothing is wrong, and nobody has made a mistake.
PAYE, though, is worked out as though there were always 52. Take someone on $1,200.00 a week on tax code M. Each week withholds $231.39, so 53 of them withhold $12,263.67. Their income for that year is $63,600, and the tax genuinely due on it is $12,413.50. The withholding is $149.83 short, because the extra week's pay was taxed at the average rate for a 52-week year rather than at the marginal rate that applies to income on top of a full year.
The student loan deduction moves the same way. Fifty-three weekly thresholds shelter $24,592.00 of income rather than $24,128, so $464.00 more of your income escapes the 12% deduction, worth $55.68 across the year. Both gaps are picked up in the end-of-year assessment.
The 27-pay-fortnight year
The same thing happens on a fortnightly cycle, roughly every eleven years, when 27 paydays fall inside one tax year instead of 26. Because a fortnightly pay is twice the size, the effect is about twice as large.
On $2,400.00 a fortnight, 27 pays withhold $12,495.06 against $12,794.50 genuinely due on $64,800 of income, a shortfall of $299.44. The 27 fortnightly student loan thresholds shelter $25,056.00 rather than $24,128, worth $111.36 of repayment.
If a tax bill after 31 March is unwelcome, the year with the extra pay is the one to watch. A voluntary payment to Inland Revenue before the assessment arrives is the simplest way to deal with it.
Monthly pay
Twelve pays a year, each one twelfth of your annual salary. Payroll annualises the month, taxes that figure, divides by 52, truncates to cents, multiplies by 52 and divides by 12. The double conversion is why a monthly payslip can withhold a few cents a year less than a weekly one on the same salary.
Monthly is also the only cycle where the number of days in the period varies without your pay varying, which makes hourly reconciliation harder. The student loan threshold is $2,010.66, and there is no equivalent of the 53rd pay: twelve months is twelve months every year.
Monthly pay has no separate calculator on this site because the arithmetic is identical to the other cycles. Use the comparison above, or the take-home pay calculator with the monthly view selected.
Four-weekly pay
Thirteen pays a year, on the same weekday every four weeks. Uncommon in New Zealand outside some rostered and seasonal work, and easy to confuse with monthly, which it is not: thirteen pays of four weeks each cover 364 days, while twelve monthly pays cover the full year.
The student loan threshold is $1,856.00, exactly four weekly thresholds, and thirteen of them reconstruct the $24,128 annual figure precisely. Like a weekly cycle, a four-weekly one can occasionally produce a 14th pay inside a tax year.
Which frequency leaves you better off
None of them, in any way that shows up in your annual position. The reasons to prefer one are practical rather than fiscal:
- Weekly smooths cash flow and makes an unusual pay period obvious immediately. It also produces the occasional 53rd pay.
- Fortnightly is the most common New Zealand cycle. Twenty-six pays a year lines up neatly with fortnightly rent and most benefit payments.
- Four-weekly keeps a constant number of days in every period, which suits shift rosters and makes overtime easy to reconcile.
- Monthly matches most bills, insurance and mortgage payments, and needs the least payroll administration.
One caution about switching. Whatever the cycle, the 1.75% ACC earners' levy stops once earnings for the year reach $156,641, and a change of frequency mid-year means your payroll system has two part-year patterns to annualise rather than one. That is the year to check your assessment carefully.
The threshold that moves, and the ones that do not
Only the student loan threshold is expressed per pay period. The tax bands, the $156,641 ACC earnings cap and the independent earner tax credit are all annual figures that the calculation reaches by annualising your period. That is why changing frequency moves your student loan deduction by a few dollars a year and leaves everything else alone.
Common questions
Does pay frequency change how much tax I pay in New Zealand?
Almost none. The same salary on any of the four cycles produces the same annual PAYE to within a few cents, because the method annualises every period before taxing it. The differences that remain come from truncation inside the period, and they are settled after 31 March.
What is the student loan repayment threshold per pay period?
$464.00 a week, $928.00 a fortnight, $1,856.00 every four weeks and $2,010.66 a month. Each is the $24,128 annual threshold split across the year, and the 12% repayment applies only above it.
What is a 53-pay-week year?
A tax year in which your payday falls 53 times rather than 52. It happens every five or six years depending on which weekday you are paid. You receive an extra week of pay, and because each week is taxed as one fifty-second of a year, the withholding across the year comes up slightly short.
Is it better to be paid weekly or monthly in New Zealand?
For tax, no meaningful difference. Weekly smooths cash flow and makes an odd pay period easy to spot. Monthly lines up with most bills. Fortnightly is the most common New Zealand cycle, and it is the one that produces an occasional 27th pay in a year.
Can my employer change my pay frequency?
Only by agreement. Pay frequency is a term of your employment agreement, so a change needs your consent and a written variation. The transition matters too: you cannot be left unpaid for work already done while the cycle shifts.
Where these figures come from
- IRD. Payroll calculations and business rules specification
- IRD. Tax rates for individuals
- IRD. Student loan repayments
- IRD. ACC earners' levy rates
2026–27 tax year (1 April 2026 – 31 March 2027). Last verified 30 July 2026.
Related
- weekly pay calculatorOne week, calculated the way payroll does it
- fortnightly pay calculatorThe most common New Zealand cycle
- how PAYE is calculatedWhy the method always divides by 52
- student loan repaymentsWhere the period thresholds come from
- how to read a New Zealand payslipCheck a period against the calculator
- take-home pay calculatorThe full annual picture