Finance Minister Michael Cullen today said 20,000 people had
signed up in the first nine days of April, taking total membership to
542,000.

Dr Cullen said the high uptake "continues to amaze".

"New Zealand workers have turned KiwiSaver
into arguably the most successful voluntary savings initiative anywhere
in the world and certainly a blueprint for other nations."

From April 1, employers were required to contribute 1 percent of their employee's salary into their KiwiSaver account.

That contribution will rise to 4 percent by 2011.