Them’s the rules, says BusinessNZ
KiwiSaver would have to be compulsory, with the same rules for all employers and employees, if New Zealand wanted to eliminate any difference between the way various businesses treat their employer contributions, BusinessNZ says.
It was revealed this week that only 55 per cent of employers were paying their contribution to KiwiSaver accounts on top of employees’ salaries.
Another 10 per cent paid it out of employees’ salaries, and 20 per cent were not sure what they were doing regarding contributions to the retirement savings scheme.
If the employer contribution – an amount equal to 3 per cent of an employee’s pay – is not made on top of their normal wages, that is meant to have been agreed in good faith as part of contract negotiations.
‘‘If you have two staff [members] on the same wage, and one has the employer’s 3 per cent KiwiSaver contribution paid on top and one has it included in their salary, the worker with it included has essentially taken a 3 per cent cut in their take-home pay,’’ the Commission for Financial Capability’s education manager, David Boyle, said.
‘‘It’s not surprising if a number of these employees do not contribute to KiwiSaver.’’
But BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said the voluntary nature of KiwiSaver meant there were different outcomes according to different choices.
‘‘Employees can choose whether to save with KiwiSaver or other retirement savings providers.
‘‘In a workplace where some employees save with KiwiSaver and others save with other providers, employers would wish to treat all fairly and would not want to pay a lesser total amount to employees choosing other retirement savings providers,’’ Hope said.
‘‘It’s the voluntary nature of KiwiSaver that leads to different outcomes for different savers.
‘‘It would be necessary to turn KiwiSaver into a compulsory scheme with compulsory rules for all employers and employees to ensure the same outcomes for all savers.’’
AMP’s managing director in New Zealand, Blair Vernon, said his firm’s research showed people wanted employers to do more to help them with their savings.
More than half the full-time employed people it surveyed who were not contributing to KiwiSaver wanted their employer to do more to help them.
Half said that if their employer contributed more towards their KiwiSaver, they would too.
‘‘Pleasingly we found that most SME [small to medium-sized enterprise] owners are willing to help where they can and feel a sense of duty to at least try to understand and share basic KiwiSaver information,’’ he said.
‘‘But they would appreciate more support when it comes to talking to their employees about the benefits of the scheme, because they’re often not able to confidently have those conversations.
‘‘It’s clear that employers have an important role in ensuring their employees’ financial wellbeing, but so too does the industry in terms of continuing to help New Zealanders understand their rights when it comes to KiwiSaver, how to set up up their KiwiSaver to get the most out of it, and in supporting business owners to have those conversations and help their employees on their KiwiSaver journey.’’
‘‘It would be necessary to turn KiwiSaver into a compulsory scheme with compulsory rules for all employers and employees to ensure the same outcomes for all savers.’’
Kirk Hope, BusinessNZ