Are wages keeping up with prices?
Pay rates for the same work rose 2.0% over a year, slower than consumer prices at 4.1% (Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa; NZ in Numbers calculation, Jun 2026 qtr).
Updated
The annual percentage change in pay rates (Labour Cost Index, all salary and wage rates) alongside the annual inflation rate (CPI). When pay rises faster than prices, pay is rising in real terms.
The LCI tracks pay for the same job, so it excludes raises from promotion or changing jobs; average earnings (QES) usually grow faster. Household costs such as mortgage interest are only partly in the CPI.
Household income combines income across household members. The median describes the middle household, while an average is affected by the largest incomes. Before tax and after tax figures answer different questions about the same household.
Read the period beside each number before comparing it with another figure. A monthly observation, a quarterly result and a financial year cover different spans of time. The latest release can also revise earlier observations. The chart and downloads keep the published periods so you can check which figures are being compared. A change in wages describes what happened during that period; it does not by itself explain why it happened or identify the effect of a government policy. Definitions and coverage matter as much as the size of a change.
Pay rates (LCI), annual % change was 2.4% in Jun 2025 qtr, a year earlier.
The earliest observation on the same basis was 1.0% in Dec 1993 qtr.
Wages: definitions
The annual percentage change in pay rates (Labour Cost Index, all salary and wage rates) alongside the annual inflation rate (CPI). When pay rises faster than prices, pay is rising in real terms.
- The LCI tracks pay for the same job, so it excludes raises from promotion or changing jobs; average earnings (QES) usually grow faster.
- Household costs such as mortgage interest are only partly in the CPI.
Show the figures
| Period | Pay rates (LCI), annual % change (%) |
|---|---|
| Jun 2026 qtr | 2.0% |
| Mar 2026 qtr | 2.0% |
| Dec 2025 qtr | 2.0% |
| Sep 2025 qtr | 2.1% |
| Jun 2025 qtr | 2.4% |
| Mar 2025 qtr | 2.9% |
| Dec 2024 qtr | 3.2% |
| Sep 2024 qtr | 3.7% |
| Jun 2024 qtr | 4.3% |
| Mar 2024 qtr | 4.1% |
| Dec 2023 qtr | 4.3% |
| Sep 2023 qtr | 4.4% |
| Jun 2023 qtr | 4.3% |
| Mar 2023 qtr | 4.3% |
| Dec 2022 qtr | 4.1% |
| Sep 2022 qtr | 3.7% |
| Jun 2022 qtr | 3.4% |
| Mar 2022 qtr | 3.0% |
| Dec 2021 qtr | 2.6% |
| Sep 2021 qtr | 2.4% |
Quarters, labelled by their final month. Source: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa; NZ in Numbers calculation. Lines break at basis changes and missing periods.
Wages: questions for your AI
Download the data, attach it in your assistant, then paste the prompt.
The attached CSV is Pay rates vs prices: are wages keeping up?, from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa; NZ in Numbers calculation. Answer: Are wages keeping up with prices? Name the unit and period. Use only directly supported observations. Definitions: The annual percentage change in pay rates (Labour Cost Index, all salary and wage rates) alongside the annual inflation rate (CPI). When pay rises faster than prices, pay is rising in real terms. Limits: The LCI tracks pay for the same job, so it excludes raises from promotion or changing jobs; average earnings (QES) usually grow faster. Household costs such as mortgage interest are only partly in the CPI.
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Wages: sources
The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.
Calculated by NZ in Numbers from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Labour Cost Index (salary and wage rates); Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Consumers price index (quarterly).
- Organisation
- Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa; NZ in Numbers calculation, NZ in Numbers calculation
- Licence
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Calculated by NZ in Numbers from the source datasets listed; please also credit those sources.
- Snapshot
- SHA256
- 2d18578f60c06610afc7d42d555b7a9b707ec0afc517e6e9bddd978f1ed9d844
- Retrieved
- 10 October 2026
- Formula
- Each series: (value this quarter ÷ value same quarter last year − 1) × 100
- Inputs
- wage-index, LCIQ.SD53Z9. Source: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Labour Cost Index (salary and wage rates). Content hash: e985d04ca19bf46f4fbbd8884c548aa6009e2cacaf4572ca15adefcec6654220.
- consumers-price-index, CPIQ.SE9A. Source: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Consumers price index (quarterly). Content hash: 1fafdea586b393055f4b864fcac323d1a4e37979d7302156a5962f95b50bc886.