Salary Confirmation Letters (Proof Of Employment) In NZ: When You Need One

If you employ staff (or you’re about to hire your first team member), you’ll probably get asked to provide a salary confirmation letter (also known as a proof of employment letter) at some point. It might come from your employee, their bank, a landlord, a government agency, or even your payroll provider.

On the surface, it sounds simple: “Can you confirm this person works for you and earns $X?” But as an NZ employer, there are a few legal and practical issues to get right, especially around privacy, accuracy, and who is authorised to sign.

In this guide, we’ll walk through what a salary confirmation letter is, when you might need to provide one, what to include (and what to avoid), and how to put a consistent process in place so you can handle requests quickly and safely.

What Is A Salary Confirmation Letter?

A salary confirmation letter (sometimes called a proof of employment letter or employment verification letter) is a document your business provides to confirm basic details about an employee’s employment.

Most commonly, it confirms:

• that the employee is employed by your business
• their job title (and sometimes a short description of their role)
• their employment status (full-time, part-time, casual, fixed-term)
• their start date (and end date, if applicable)
• their salary or hourly rate (and sometimes typical hours)
• whether their employment is ongoing and in good standing (if you’re comfortable confirming this)

From your perspective as an employer, the key point is this: a salary confirmation letter is a formal statement you’re making to a third party, so it needs to be accurate, consistent with your records, and only provided with proper authority.

Salary Confirmation Letter Vs Payslips Vs Reference Letters

These documents get mixed up a lot, but they’re not the same:

• Payslips show what was actually paid for a pay period (including deductions), and they’re often the best evidence of income.
• Salary confirmation letters confirm the agreed pay arrangement and employment details, usually for banks/tenancy applications or other administrative checks.
• Reference letters are more opinion-based (performance, character, suitability) and come with different risk considerations.

If you’re asked for a reference but you only want to provide factual confirmation, a salary confirmation letter can be a good middle ground.

When Does Your NZ Business Need To Provide A Salary Confirmation Letter?

As an employer, you’re not “marketing” your business when you issue these letters, but you are helping your employee deal with day-to-day life admin. Having a clean process makes you look organised and avoids misunderstandings.

Common situations where you might be asked for a salary confirmation letter include:

• Home loan or personal loan applications (banks and lenders often want written confirmation of income and employment type)
• Rental applications (landlords/property managers want proof the tenant can pay rent)
• Visa or immigration processes (where work and income need to be evidenced)
• Government support applications where employment details need verification
• New employment onboarding for secondary jobs (less common, but it happens)
• Internal processes such as employee promotions, pay reviews, or verifying details for a payroll change

In practice, the request usually comes from the employee (because the third party tells them “get your employer to confirm X”). Sometimes the third party sends a template, and you’re asked to complete it.

Do You Have To Provide One?

There isn’t a single, universal rule that every employer must provide a salary confirmation letter on demand. In many cases, providing one is voluntary and comes down to good HR practice. However, your obligations may be different if:

• your employee’s employment agreement says you will provide employment-related documents on request
• your workplace policies or staff handbook set an expectation that you’ll provide confirmation letters
• a specific process or agency requires verification in a particular form (and the employee has asked you to assist)

As a general business reality, most employers do provide these letters (as long as the request is reasonable and the employee consents), because:

• it supports staff wellbeing and retention
• it’s relatively quick if you have a template
• it avoids repeated back-and-forth with lenders/landlords

The bigger issue usually isn’t “must we?”-it’s “how do we do it safely and consistently?”

What Should A Salary Confirmation Letter Include (And What Should You Avoid)?

A good salary confirmation letter is short, factual, and easy for a third party to understand. The goal is to confirm the employment facts without over-sharing personal information or making promises you can’t stand behind.

Key Information To Include

Most salary confirmation letters will include:

• Business details (legal name, NZBN if you use it, address, contact email/phone)
• Date the letter is issued
• Employee’s full name
• Employment start date
• Employment type (full-time/part-time/casual/fixed-term)
• Role/title
• Pay information (salary per annum or hourly rate) and, if hourly, typical hours
• Pay frequency (weekly/fortnightly/monthly)
• Signatory name and position (e.g. Director, Office Manager, Head of People)
• Confirmation consent line (e.g. “This letter is provided at the employee’s request”)

To keep your documents consistent, it helps if your employment arrangements are documented clearly in an Employment Contract so the letter matches what you’ve agreed in writing.

Information To Be Careful With

Depending on who’s requesting the letter, you might be asked to include extra details. This is where you’ll want to slow down and sense-check what’s appropriate.

Be cautious about including:

• Health information, family details, or anything unrelated to employment/income
• Performance commentary (unless it’s a reference letter and you’re comfortable giving it)
• Disciplinary matters or allegations
• Guarantees that employment will continue for a certain period (unless that’s contractually correct, like a fixed-term end date)

It’s also worth being careful with wording like “permanent employment” in New Zealand. We usually talk about “ongoing” employment, but even then, you should avoid wording that sounds like a promise of lifetime employment.

Accuracy Matters (More Than People Think)

A salary confirmation letter is often relied on for financial decisions. If it’s wrong (even accidentally), it can create disputes for the employee and reputational issues for your business.

Practical tips:

• Use payroll records and the signed employment agreement as your source of truth.
• If the employee is paid via variable hours, state the hourly rate and clarify that hours vary (rather than guessing an annualised figure).
• If you’re mid-way through a pay rise or role change, confirm what is effective as at the date of the letter.

Privacy And Consent: What You Need To Know As An Employer

Because a salary confirmation letter contains personal information (employment and income details), it’s also a privacy issue.

In New Zealand, the Privacy Act 2020 sets expectations around how businesses collect, use, and disclose personal information. In plain terms: you should only disclose personal information when you have a lawful basis, and you should keep that disclosure to what’s necessary.

Get Clear Consent Before You Send Anything

As a good baseline, you should have the employee’s consent before you provide a salary confirmation letter to a third party.

In many cases, the employee will ask you to write the letter and they’ll pass it on themselves. That’s usually the cleanest approach.

If the bank or landlord asks you to send it directly, consider:

• asking the employee to put the request in writing (email is fine)
• confirming exactly what information they want disclosed
• sending it to a specific contact person (not a generic inbox) where possible

If your business regularly handles employee personal information, it’s smart to have a clear Privacy Policy and internal practices so your team knows what can be shared and when.

Only Share What’s Needed

Even with consent, it’s best practice to keep the letter to the essentials. Oversharing increases risk and rarely helps the employee more.

For example, if the request is for tenancy purposes, they often just need:

• employment status
• start date
• income (salary or hourly rate and typical hours)

Anything beyond that should be optional and carefully considered.

Who Should Sign A Salary Confirmation Letter (And How Should It Be Issued)?

This is where small businesses can trip up, especially if you have multiple managers or a distributed team.

A salary confirmation letter should be signed by someone with authority to confirm employment and pay details, such as:

• a director (common in smaller companies)
• the business owner (if you’re a sole trader)
• HR/People & Culture (if you have that function)
• a payroll manager or office manager (if they have delegated authority)

What you want to avoid is junior staff “doing someone a favour” and issuing a letter without understanding the risks or checking the records first.

Put A Simple Internal Process In Place

To keep things easy (and consistent), many businesses adopt a basic workflow like:

1. Employee request comes through to a central person (e.g. office manager).
2. Check consent and confirm who it’s being provided to.
3. Verify details against the employment agreement and payroll system.
4. Issue using a template (with minimal edits).
5. Keep a copy on the employee’s file.

If you don’t yet have formalised employment documentation, it’s worth fixing that first. It’s much easier to confidently confirm pay and employment status when your records are clear and up to date.

Be Careful With Templates From Third Parties

Sometimes, banks or property managers send forms asking you to confirm extra things, like whether the employee is on a performance plan or whether you “expect employment to continue for the next 12 months”.

If you’re uncomfortable with a question, you can:

• leave it blank and provide a standard salary confirmation letter instead
• answer in a narrow, factual way (e.g. “employment is ongoing as at the date of this letter”)
• ask the employee if they’re happy for you to disclose any extra information (and still consider if it’s appropriate)

Remember: your obligation is to be truthful and careful, not to satisfy every “nice to have” question someone else includes in a form.

Common Mistakes NZ Employers Make With Salary Confirmation Letters

Most issues aren’t caused by bad intentions-they’re caused by rushing, using old information, or not thinking about how the letter might be relied on.

Here are some common pitfalls to watch for:

• Confirming the wrong salary (e.g. quoting “base salary” when the employee is now on a different package, or including allowances incorrectly).
• Guessing hours for variable-hour workers rather than stating that hours vary.
• Overcommitting by saying employment is “guaranteed” or “permanent”.
• Disclosing too much (privacy risk) or adding commentary that could be misinterpreted.
• Letting the wrong person sign without delegated authority.
• Inconsistent statements compared to the employment agreement or payslips (which can cause delays for the employee and extra queries for you).

If you’re scaling your team, it can help to formalise these sorts of “day-to-day HR” processes in a broader set of documents like a staff handbook. Clear policies reduce ad-hoc decisions and keep everyone on the same page.

Key Takeaways

• A salary confirmation letter is a formal letter confirming an employee’s employment and pay details, commonly used for lending, renting, and administrative checks.
• Keep the letter factual, short, and consistent with your payroll records and employment agreement.
• Because the letter contains personal information, make sure you have clear employee consent and only disclose what’s necessary (Privacy Act 2020 considerations).
• Set an internal process so requests are handled quickly and consistently, and so only authorised staff issue or sign the letter.
• Avoid overcommitting language (like guaranteed ongoing employment) and avoid including unnecessary commentary (such as performance or health details).

If you’d like help getting your employment documentation and HR processes set up properly (so letters like these are straightforward), you can reach us at 0800 002 184 or team@sprintlaw.co.nz for a free, no-obligations chat.