Which agreement sets your pay
Pay in New Zealand’s public health system is set by collective agreement, not negotiated case by case. So the useful question is not what the job pays. It is which agreement covers you, and whether it is current.
Kettle on. About 10 min
Everything here is public. Almost nobody reads it.
Every one of these agreements is published in full. You are entitled to read the document that will govern your salary before you accept a job.
What people struggle with is knowing which one. There are more than a dozen in circulation, several professions sit under agreements with names that do not match their job title, and a few of the documents you will find first have expired. So this is the register: what covers each profession, how long it runs, and where to read it yourself.
This page is deliberately a register, not an explainer. How pay works — steps, progression, what sits on top of base salary, tax and take-home — is explained once, in Salary & pay, explained.
Agreement by profession
Read from the published agreements, and current as at September 2026. Terms and status change, so check the date on any document before you rely on a number in it.
Professions we recruit for
All in the public system. These are the agreements we work from when we confirm a rate for you.
Other professions with a current agreement
We do not recruit for these at the moment. They are here because the register is more useful complete than curated, and because colleagues ask.
Currently being renegotiated
When an agreement expires its terms continue to apply until a replacement is ratified, so nobody’s pay stops. But we will not print a figure from an expired document, and neither should anyone else.
General practice is the one gap. There is no single collective agreement for GPs. Pay depends on whether you are salaried by a practice, employed through a primary health organisation, or contracting, and it is negotiated individually. It is the one area where the number really does depend on the conversation.
Where the agreements are published
Both of these are free, and between them they hold every agreement in the register above.
APEX collective agreements
The union that negotiates for most allied health, scientific and technical professions. Its register is the most current of the two and usually the fastest to publish a newly ratified agreement.
apex.org.nz The employer’s own listHealth New Zealand employment agreements
Every agreement Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is party to, including nursing and the senior medical agreements. The salary scales live in the appendices at the back of each document.
tewhatuora.govt.nzThe two lists do not always agree. Where a newly settled agreement appears on one and not the other, the more recent document is usually the operative one, but if a figure matters to a decision you are making, ask us or ask the union rather than guessing between them.
What a collective agreement will not tell you
It sets the scale. It does not settle your salary, and reading it will leave four questions open.
Which step you start on
The agreement says the employer will take your years of experience in the occupation into account, and may go higher where recruitment is difficult. That is discretion, and discretion is where an offer is won or lost.
What sits on top
Penal rates, on-call, call-back, allowances and overtime are all in the agreement, but what you will earn depends on the roster you are given. Two people on the same step can take home materially different amounts.
Whether the role is designated
Designated positions run on their own grades and are graded by the employer against the responsibilities of the post. Whether a job is designated is a question about that specific job, not about your profession.
What it means where you are going to live
Clinical pay is national. The cost of living is not. The same step is a comfortable salary in one region and a stretch in another, and no agreement addresses that.
All four of these are things we work out with you before you decide, against the agreement and in writing. Apply and we’ll give you the number for your role. Profession, years of experience, and where you are thinking of going is enough to start.
Questions we get about the agreements
Do I have to join the union to be paid on the agreement?
No. Your terms are set by the agreement that covers your role, and you do not have to be a member to be employed on it. Membership is your decision. Some agreements do provide that a new member is placed on the scale from the point they join, so if you are weighing it up, ask the relevant union directly rather than your employer.
My agreement has expired. Has my pay stopped rising?
Your existing terms continue to apply until a replacement is ratified, so nothing lapses and your annual step progression continues. What pauses is the across-the-board increase that a new agreement usually brings. Back pay to an agreed date is common when one settles, but it is negotiated rather than guaranteed.
Why will you not quote me a salary until you have checked?
Because a figure from the wrong column of the right document is still wrong, and it is the sort of wrong that surfaces on someone’s first payslip in a new country. Most of these agreements carry three dated columns and a separate designated scale. We take a day and give you the number you will be paid.
Does my overseas experience count towards my step?
Experience in the occupation is what the agreements direct the employer to take into account, and that is not limited to New Zealand. How much of it is recognised in practice varies, and it is one of the few negotiable parts of a clinical offer. Come to that conversation with your years set out clearly and evidenced.
Is the private sector paid on these agreements?
Some independent providers hold their own collective agreements, and several appear in the register above. Many do not, in which case pay is individually negotiated. If you are considering a private role, ask at the outset whether a collective agreement applies. The answer changes what there is to discuss.
Related guides
Want the number for your role?
Tell us your profession and how long you have been qualified, and we will confirm which agreement covers you, where you would sit on it, and what the full package looks like where you are thinking of living. In writing, before you decide anything.
Ethicare Resourcing · your guide to a life and career in New Zealand.