Funding the summer team

A beach café in January can need twice the staff it has in July. A ski-town hire shop goes from a skeleton crew to a full floor in a fortnight. A gift shop adds weekend help from November. In every case, the people have to be found, hired and trained before the money arrives — and they have to be paid every week from their first shift.

Why do wages create a cash gap?

Three things happen at once before a busy season:

1. Recruitment and training. Advertising, interviews, induction, and shifts where new staff are learning rather than serving.
2. Wages ahead of takings. You often need the team in place a week or two before the crowds.
3. Other pre-season costs. Stock, maintenance and marketing are usually landing at the same time.

The cash gap estimator shows how deep that gap gets for your business. For many seasonal operators it’s the deepest point of the year — not the off-season itself.

What does a seasonal employee actually cost in 2026?

Several changes took effect on 1 April 2026:

Cost	2026 setting	Source
Adult minimum wage	$23.95 an hour	MBIE
Starting-out and training minimum wage	$19.16 an hour	MBIE
Default KiwiSaver employer contribution	3.5% (rising to 4% from 1 April 2028)	Inland Revenue

On top of wages and KiwiSaver, budget for holiday pay, public holidays that fall in your season, ACC levies, uniforms and training time.

Holiday pay needs care. Employment New Zealand says pay-as-you-go holiday pay (8% of gross earnings) is only allowed where work is so irregular or intermittent that four weeks’ annual holidays is impracticable, or where the employee is on a genuine fixed-term agreement of less than 12 months, with a genuine reason recorded in the agreement. It must be agreed in the employment agreement and shown as an identifiable amount on payslips. Getting this wrong can create back-pay liabilities later.

How do businesses fund the summer team?

From last season’s cash. The ideal — putting money aside during the peak to fund the next pre-season. Not always possible, especially after a tough year.

With a short unsecured facility — typically $5,000 to $500,000 for trading businesses, sized on turnover and bank statements. Drawn before recruitment, repaid from the season’s takings.

As part of a larger pre-season facility that also covers stock and maintenance. See seasonal stock funding.

Property-secured funding — $20,000 to $5,000,000 — is rarely needed for wages alone, but can make sense when the pre-season plan includes bigger investments.

Want to plan this season properly? Start an enquiry. There’s no credit check to ask.

Ways to shrink the gap

• Start recruitment early, so training happens on quieter shifts rather than at peak.
• Keep a core team through the quieter months if you can — rehiring every year costs more than it looks.
• Stagger start dates to match how quickly trade builds.
• Check your GST and tax dates so a tax payment doesn’t land in the same week as the first big payroll.
• In tight housing markets, budget for staff accommodation support. Queenstown Lakes District Council estimates higher labour turnover costs its local economy $105m to $200m a year. See our Queenstown page.

An illustrative example

Illustrative only. A summer ice-cream and coffee shop near a popular beach goes from three staff in winter to eleven in January. Recruitment starts in October, training in November, and the shop is at full strength from mid-December.

The owner draws a short facility in November to cover the extra wages until Christmas trade arrives, then repays it by the end of February. Holiday pay is handled properly for fixed-term summer staff under written agreements, and the GST payment due in January is set aside weekly from December takings.

How do I work out the true weekly cost of the summer team?

For each seasonal role, add up:

1. Hourly rate × rostered hours, including weekend and public holiday shifts at the right rates
2. Employer KiwiSaver at 3.5% for members
3. Holiday pay — either accrued annual holidays or, where genuinely allowed, pay-as-you-go
4. ACC levies linked to your payroll
5. Training time before the person is fully productive
6. Recruitment, uniforms and onboarding spread across the season

Then multiply by the number of weeks you’ll need them before takings rise to match. That figure — not the hourly rate — is the cash you need in place before the season starts. Run it through the cash gap estimator as part of your fixed costs for those months.

Where do main-street businesses find seasonal staff?

Common sources include students home for summer, returning staff from previous seasons, working-holiday visitors, local job boards and community networks. Returning staff are the most valuable — they need less training and know your customers. Some owners offer a small end-of-season bonus or early rostering choices to encourage people back. Whatever the source, put employment terms in writing from the first shift, including how holiday pay will be handled.

Keep the core team through winter

Where you can, keeping two or three experienced people on reduced hours through the quiet months usually costs less than recruiting and training a whole new team each spring. They become your trainers when the seasonal staff arrive.

Ready to plan your season?

If you need to hire before the money comes in, start your 60-second enquiry. We won’t check your credit just because you asked, your details stay with one team instead of being sent around, and someone who understands seasonal businesses will phone you. Please be accurate about staff numbers, wages and when your peak starts — it helps us match you properly first time.