Working days in New Zealand in 2028
There are 238 working days in New Zealand in 2028, counting Monday to Friday and excluding 23 public holidays that fall on a weekday. That is from 366 calendar days, with 106 weekend days removed.
Working days
238
Mon-Fri, holidays removed
Weekend days
106
Saturdays + Sundays
Weekday holidays
23
0 more fall on weekends
Avg / month
19.8
working days per month
Month-by-month working days in 2028
| Month | Days | Weekends | Holidays | Working days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31 | 10 | 4 | 17 |
| February | 29 | 8 | 1 | 20 |
| March | 31 | 8 | 2 | 21 |
| April | 30 | 10 | 4 | 16 |
| May | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 |
| June | 30 | 8 | 1 | 21 |
| July | 31 | 10 | 1 | 20 |
| August | 31 | 8 | 0 | 23 |
| September | 30 | 9 | 1 | 20 |
| October | 31 | 9 | 3 | 19 |
| November | 30 | 8 | 2 | 20 |
| December | 31 | 10 | 3 | 18 |
| Total | 366 | 106 | 23 | 238 |
Public holidays excluded from the 2028 working-day count
These are the 23 public holidays in New Zealand that land on a weekday in 2028 and therefore remove a working day. Holidays that fall on a weekend are not listed here because they do not change the working-day total.
- New Year's DayMon, Jan 3
- Day after New Year's DayTue, Jan 4
- Wellington Anniversary DayMon, Jan 24
- Auckland Anniversary DayMon, Jan 31
- Nelson Anniversary DayMon, Jan 31
- Waitangi DayMon, Feb 7
- Taranaki Anniversary DayMon, Mar 13
- Otago Anniversary DayMon, Mar 20
- Good FridayFri, Apr 14
- Easter MondayMon, Apr 17
- Southland Anniversary DayTue, Apr 18
- Anzac DayTue, Apr 25
- King's BirthdayMon, Jun 5
- MatarikiFri, Jul 14
- Canterbury (South) Anniversary DayMon, Sep 25
- Hawke's Bay Anniversary DayFri, Oct 20
- Labour DayMon, Oct 23
- Marlborough Anniversary DayMon, Oct 30
- Canterbury Anniversary DayFri, Nov 17
- Chatham Islands Anniversary DayMon, Nov 27
- Westland Anniversary DayMon, Dec 4
- Christmas DayMon, Dec 25
- Boxing DayTue, Dec 26
How working days in New Zealand are counted in 2028
The 238 working days shown above are the 366 calendar days of 2028, minus the 106 Saturdays and Sundays, minus the 23 public holidays that land on a weekday. Holidays that fall on a Saturday or Sunday are not subtracted, because they do not remove a day anyone would have worked; in 2028 that applies to 0 of New Zealand's public holidays. At a standard eight-hour day, 238 working days works out to roughly 1,904 working hours across the year, before any annual leave is taken.
What counts as a working day in New Zealand
The Holidays Act 2003 defines an otherwise working day for the purpose of public holiday entitlements as any day the employee would have worked but for the holiday. The Employment Relations Act 2000 governs working time generally. The standard private-sector week is Monday to Friday with banks operating Monday to Friday. District Court Rules and High Court Rules treat working day as any day except Saturday, Sunday, public holidays, the period from 25 December to 2 January inclusive and the anniversary day of the locality. Settlement of New Zealand dollar transactions runs on the Reserve Bank's ESAS system.
New Zealand recognises eleven public holidays under the Holidays Act 2003, plus one anniversary day per region observed only in that region. The national list includes New Year's Day and 2 January, Waitangi Day on 6 February, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day on 25 April, King's Birthday on the first Monday of June, Matariki at a date set annually by the Matariki Advisory Committee (a Maori lunisolar new year added in 2022), Labour Day on the fourth Monday of October, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The eleventh anniversary day varies: Auckland observes it on 29 January, Wellington on 22 January, Canterbury on 16 November.
This matters because the working-day total is not spread evenly. Some months in New Zealand carry several public holidays while others have none, so the month-by-month table above is the figure to use for payroll runs, billing cycles, SLA windows, and project plans rather than a flat assumption of about 19.8 working days per month. A month with two weekday holidays can have several fewer working days than a clear one, which changes capacity planning and the realistic delivery date for anything scheduled in business days.
Sources for New Zealand holiday and working-day rules
- Holidays Act 2003 sections 44 to 49
- Matariki Public Holiday Act 2022
- Employment Relations Act 2000
- Reserve Bank of New Zealand ESAS calendar
To see the individual dates, the day of the week each holiday lands on, and the full official list, open the New Zealand holiday calendar for 2028. You can subscribe to those dates as an .ics feed so they appear in your own calendar, or use the working-days-between-two-dates calculator to count business days for a specific date range rather than the whole year.
Working-day figures are computed from the public holiday list for New Zealand (source: Nager.Date and the national references above) combined with a Monday-to-Friday business week. Regional holidays and substitute-day rules vary; confirm against the official calendar for legal or payroll use.