The One-Line Answer
ACC pays up to 80% of the income you earned before your injury, before tax and other deductions. Everything else — the four-week switch, the 52-week divisor, the minimum and maximum — is a refinement of that single rule. If a payment looks wrong, it is almost always because one of those refinements was applied using the wrong earnings period.
Step 1: The Short-Term Rate (First Four Weeks)
For the first four weeks, ACC uses the simplest possible measure — what you actually earned in the four weeks immediately before your injury:
- Add up your earnings in the four weeks before the injury (before tax).
- Divide by four to get average weekly earnings.
- Multiply by 80%.
- Deduct tax and other deductions (student loan, KiwiSaver employee contributions, child support).
Worked example: you earned $5,000 across four weeks. $5,000 ÷ 4 = $1,250 average weekly. 80% = $1,000 gross. After about $300 of tax and deductions, you receive roughly $700 a week.
Step 2: The Long-Term Rate (After Four Weeks)
From week five onward the calculation depends on whether you are a permanent or non-permanent employee, and the two formulas can produce quite different results.
| Employment type | How the long-term rate is calculated | Worked example |
|---|---|---|
| Permanent — you would have kept earning from the same employer for the next 52 weeks | Total income from your current PAYE job ÷ the number of weeks you actually worked, up to 52. Agreed unpaid leave is excluded. | $58,800 total income, 49 weeks worked → $1,200/wk → 80% = $960 gross |
| Non-permanent — casual, seasonal, fixed-term with under a year left, or you had already given notice | Total income from all non-permanent PAYE jobs ÷ 52, regardless of how many weeks you worked. | $52,000 total → $1,000/wk → 80% = $800 gross |
Note the direction of the permanent-employee formula: dividing by a smaller number of weeks (because of unpaid leave) produces a higher weekly figure. That is deliberate — it reconstructs what a normal working week looked like.
The 2026/27 Minimum and Maximum
Weekly compensation is bounded at both ends, which matters most for the lowest and highest earners:
- Minimum (full-time earner): $766.40 a week gross. That is 80% of the adult minimum wage of $23.95 an hour for a 40-hour week — the minimum wage rose from $23.50 to $23.95 on 1 April 2026.
- Maximum: about $2,410 a week gross. That is 80% of maximum liable earnings of $156,641 for the 2026/27 year. Earnings above the cap are not insured.
- Part-time workers are not floored at the full-time minimum; the payment follows actual earnings unless you were working full-time hours.
Both bands move every year with the minimum wage and the liable-earnings cap, so a payment quoted to you last year may be a little light this year.
Abatement: Earning While on Weekly Compensation
You can work while receiving weekly compensation — in fact ACC encourages it via graduated return to work — but your combined income cannot exceed 100% of your usual pay. When it does, ACC reduces your payment, and that reduction is called abatement.
Three rules to keep straight:
- Report earnings immediately, through MyACC or by telling your recovery team. Retrospective reporting creates overpayments you have to repay.
- Use a secondary tax code on the new income. Inland Revenue expects it, and the wrong code is the most common cause of an unexpected year-end tax bill.
- 100% is the target, not 80%. Combining partial earnings with reduced compensation can produce a total close to your full ordinary pay — sometimes better than staying off work entirely.
Work vs Non-Work Injuries and the First Week
- Work injury: your employer pays 80% of your usual pay for the first week (7 calendar days) from the date of injury, and ACC generally starts on day 8. The employer cannot require you to use sick leave for that week.
- Non-work injury: the first week is covered by sick leave, annual leave, or unpaid time by agreement with your employer. ACC starts after that.
- Top-ups by agreement: an employer can lift first-week compensation to 100% by reducing your sick leave by one day for every five days covered.
If the Calculation Looks Wrong
Ask ACC for the earnings figures it used and the period they cover — this is the single most common source of error, because ACC relies on data supplied by your employer and Inland Revenue. If your employer filed late, reported a wrong total, or omitted a second job, the payment will be wrong even though the formula is right. Corrections can be backdated, and if ACC refuses, you have three months from the decision to apply for an independent review.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is ACC weekly compensation calculated?
ACC pays up to 80% of your pre-injury earnings before tax. For the first four weeks it uses your earnings in the four weeks before the injury divided by four. After that, a permanent employee's total income is divided by the weeks actually worked (up to 52), while a non-permanent employee's total income is divided by 52.
What is the maximum ACC weekly compensation in 2026/27?
The maximum is about $2,410 a week gross — 80% of the 2026/27 maximum liable earnings of $156,641. The minimum for a full-time earner is $766.40 a week gross, being 80% of the $23.95 adult minimum wage for a 40-hour week.
Can I work while receiving ACC weekly compensation?
Yes. You can work reduced hours or alternative duties and still receive weekly compensation, but your total income cannot exceed 100% of your usual pay. ACC reduces your payment to prevent overpayment — this is called abatement — and you must report earnings as soon as they happen.
Does ACC weekly compensation start straight away after my injury?
For a work injury, your employer pays 80% of your usual pay for the first week (7 calendar days) and ACC weekly compensation generally starts from day 8. For a non-work injury, the first week is covered by sick leave, annual leave, or unpaid leave by agreement.