Unite Union 2026 Maximum fee adjustment.

Unite normally increases the maximum fee every two years. and the last one was in 2024. Because members who pay less than the maximum fee (1.2% of weekly pay) have their fees increase every time their wages go up, we need to regularly adjust the maximum fee as well. Otherwise everyone would end up on the same fee no matter what they earn.

Last October the Unite AGM approved a 50 cent increase in the maximum fee for 1^st April 2026. For those with a Union Collect Agreement that means the maximum fee will be $7.75, and for those without a union agreement it will be $5.25.

No-one welcomes prices going up but, unfortunately, your union has the same problem you and everyone else has – having to cope with increased costs like petrol, power, insurance etc. 

Unite has actually absorbed much of these increases over the past few years of high inflation. Since April 2020 inflation has totalled 27%  and the minimum wage increased by 27%. Unite’s maximum fee in April 2020 was $6.75. If it had been fully inflation adjusted, or gone up the same as the minimum and most other wages, it would be $8.57 now.  That means the maximum fee will still be over 10% less than it was in 2020 in real terms.

For almost all our members, Unite’s fees remain the lowest compared to other similar unions in Aotearoa.