ACC levies cost NZ businesses over $2 billion per year. Most business owners pay the standard rate without asking whether they can pay less. For businesses with 10 or more employees, the answer is often yes — through ACC's Experience Rating programme.
How ACC Levies Work
Every NZ employer pays three ACC levies: the Work Levy (based on your industry risk classification), the Earners Levy (flat rate applied to employee wages), and the Working Safer Levy (a small flat rate that funds WorkSafe NZ).
The Work Levy is where there is the most room to move. It is calculated using your industry classification code (the ANZSIC code ACC assigns to your business) and your total payroll. The 2026/27 work levy rates range from around $0.19 per $100 of payroll for low-risk desk-based industries to over $3.00 for high-risk construction and forestry.
For most businesses, the industry code is fixed. What is not fixed is whether Experience Rating adjusts your levy up or down based on your actual claims history.
What Experience Rating Does
Experience Rating applies to businesses with annual payrolls of $1.3 million or more (approximately 10 or more full-time employees). It compares your actual injury claims over three years against the expected claims for a business of your type and size.
If your claims are lower than expected — because your workplace is genuinely safer — ACC applies a credit to your work levy. If your claims are higher, you pay a loading.
The adjustment can be significant. Businesses with strong safety records can receive levy reductions of 50% or more against the standard rate. Businesses with poor records can face loadings of the same magnitude.
How Training Reduces Your Risk Profile
Fewer injuries mean fewer claims. Fewer claims mean a better experience rating. The mechanism is direct.
WorkSafe NZ research consistently shows that workplaces with structured safety training programmes have lower injury rates than those relying on informal on-the-job guidance. The difference is not marginal — trained workforces in comparable roles report claim rates 30 to 50% lower in high-risk categories like manual handling, working at height, and plant operation.
Training also reduces claim severity. Workers who understand incident reporting, emergency procedures, and correct technique when an injury does occur tend to have shorter recovery times and lower overall claim costs. ACC's Experience Rating considers both the number and the cost of claims.
For businesses approaching the $1.3 million payroll threshold, the timing matters. Three years of low claims before Experience Rating kicks in produces a strong starting position. Businesses that only address safety training after receiving a levy loading have already absorbed the cost.
The 2026/27 Levy Rates
ACC announced the 2026/27 rates in late 2025. The Work Levy average across all industries is $0.63 per $100 of payroll, down slightly from the previous year. The Earners Levy is set at $1.60 per $100 of liable earnings.
For a business with $2 million in payroll in a mid-risk industry (say $1.00 work levy rate), the work levy alone is $20,000 per year. A 40% Experience Rating credit through a clean claims record returns $8,000 annually. Over five years, that is $40,000 — a meaningful return on any investment in structured training.
The inverse also applies. A business that acquires a 50% loading through poor claims history pays $10,000 more per year. Over five years, $50,000 in avoidable cost — on top of the human cost of the injuries themselves.
What Counts Toward Your Record
ACC tracks claims by employer. Any work-related injury claim submitted by one of your employees counts in your experience rating calculation, including:
- Lost time injuries (any claim resulting in more than a week off work)
- Medical-only claims (treatment costs paid by ACC without lost time)
- Weekly compensation claims (wage replacement during recovery)
Serious near-misses that do not result in a claim do not appear in the ACC data — but they often precede injuries that do. WorkSafe NZ investigations consistently find that workplaces with serious injuries had prior near-miss events that were not addressed.
Steps to Reduce Your Levy
- Request your Experience Rating calculation from ACC. Understand where you currently sit and whether you are receiving a credit or loading.
- Audit your high-risk tasks. Which roles and activities generate the most claims? Manual handling, slips and falls, and plant/equipment incidents account for the majority in most industries.
- Implement structured induction and refresher training. Document everything. ACC and WorkSafe both treat training records as evidence of due diligence.
- Use toolbox talks to maintain safety culture between formal training events. See our guide to effective toolbox talks for NZ teams.
- Track near-misses and hazard reports. Workplaces that investigate near-misses have fewer subsequent claims.
A lower ACC levy is not the primary reason to invest in workplace safety training — your team's wellbeing is. But the financial case is real and quantifiable. Request your Experience Rating from ACC and calculate what a 30% improvement in your claims record would mean for your annual levy.
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