Experience Rating
Experience Rating affects how much your business pays for its ACC Work levy. Depending on your health and safety performance, your levy invoice could receive a discount, a loading, or stay the same.
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How Experience Rating affects your Work levy
A safer workplace means fewer injuries, few ACC claims, and less time off work. Experience Rating makes levies fairer by reflecting your health and safety performance.
Your business is part of Experience Rating if you, or your business group, has paid a Work levy of $10,000 or more a year, for three years in a row.
There are a few steps to calculate your ACC Work levy. For some businesses, Experience Rating is one of them.
On your Work levy invoice, you’ll see a Work Account levy amount. This base amount is calculated using:
- the industry you operate in
- the total liable earnings of your employees
- the cost of running Experience Rating so it's self-funding.
An additional charge for Experience Rating
All businesses in Experience Rating pay an extra charge called the Experience Rating Programme (ER Programme) rate as part of their Work levy (ER) rate.
This charge is
- separate from any Experience Rating discount or loading
- is not affected by your health and safety performance
- ensures that potential discounts are not subsidised by other businesses.
Discounts and loadings
Through Experience Rating, you could receive up to 50% discount or up to 100% ‘loading’ on your Work levy.
This is based on your claims history for work-related injuries and fatal claims during the Experience period.
Your Experience Rating adjustment is then applied to your Work levy, including the ER Programme rate.
How we calculate Experience Rating
We compare your claims experience with others in your industry to determine whether you receive a discount or a loading, and by how much.
We consider:
- the number of weekly compensation days your employees have
- the number of claims with medical and treatment costs of over $750
- any fatal claims.
More recent claims have a greater influence than older ones.
Over the three-year Experience period:
- Year 1 (most recent year): 100% weighting
- Year 2: 70% weighting
- Year 3: 40% weighting.
This means businesses can reduce their Work levy over time by preventing injuries and supporting employees to return to work sooner.
We publish quarterly claims reports in MyACC for Business to help you keep track of how you're performing.
Changes from 1 April 2026
We’ve made changes to improve the fairness of levies, including updates to Experience Rating.
No Claims Discount has ended
This programme previously applied to self-employed and small businesses. It has been discontinued as it didn’t deliver the expected health and safety improvements, and businesses outside the programme funded the discount.
Experience Rating changes
An additional Experience Rating Programme rate (currently 7.2%) applies to all businesses in Experience Rating.
This will show as a single Work Levy (ER) rate on your invoice, separate from any loading or discount you receive.
Experience Rating resources
We’re updating these resources to reflect the introduction of the ER Programme rate. Some of the information may be out of date while this work is underway.
This resource explains how Experience Rating affects your business and your work levy.
This resource explains how Experience Rating affects business groups and their work levy.
This resource explains Experience Rating for intermediaries and how it affects their clients' work levy.
Supporting recovery at work
There are two ways a business can reduce its Work levy, by preventing injuries in the workplace and supporting injured employees to recover at work.
As an employer, playing an early and active part in an injured employee's recovery also has other benefits. Creating a plan to get them back into the workplace sooner can mean:
- holding on to vital skills and knowledge
- saving on recruiting and training new staff
- reducing the cost of lost productivity.
Supporting your injured employee to recover at work
Contact us
For more information about Experience Rating and how it affects your Work levy, contact your relationship manager, or get in touch with the Business team.
Email er@acc.co.nz
Last published: 1 April 2026