The calculations we use depend on whether you work regular hours or not.
If you’re an employee, we’ll work out your payments for you, using information we get from your employer.
How we work out your payments
Your paid parental leave payment is the higher of your ‘ordinary weekly pay’ and ‘average weekly income’ ─ up to a maximum payment.
We use averages so you don’t miss out if your pay changes from week to week.
Ordinary weekly pay
If you work regular hours, your entitlement will be based on your weekly, fortnightly, or monthly pay.
Average weekly income
If your weekly income can vary, we look at the 52-week period immediately before:
- The person who gave birth or their spouse or partner: Your expected due date, or the baby’s date of birth.
- For other primary carers: The date the child came into your care.
Then we find the 26 weeks where you earned the most income and find the average weekly income over this period.
Income from various sources
If you have income from more than 1 employer, we combine your income from all employers to work out either your ordinary weekly pay or average weekly income.
Employee and self-employed income
You can combine your income from self-employment and employment if you meet the work requirements both as an employee and a self-employed person separately.
Maximum payment
The maximum paid parental leave payment (before tax) is:
2023-2024 tax year: $712.17 a week
2022-2023 tax year: $661.12 a week
Multiple births
Are you having more than 1 child at the same time (for example, twins)?
Your paid parental leave payments are the same, no matter how many children you have.
Hannah is expecting her first baby and now she’s at week 35 of her pregnancy, she’s impatient for the big day to arrive!
At the start of the year, Hannah was working as a sales assistant at a local shoe shop. Three months ago, a customer, impressed with Hannah’s attitude and product knowledge, offered her a job as a senior receptionist at the XYZ Hotel ─ for a bigger salary.
Hannah accepted the offer and now customers at the XYZ Hotel are enjoying a much-improved customer service.
When Hannah sent us her paid parental leave application, we worked out her entitlement for her.
Hannah’s ordinary weekly pay
Hannah works regular hours, earning $1,100 a week.
Hannah’s ordinary weekly pay is $1,100.
Hannah’s average weekly income
Next, we calculated Hannah’s average weekly income. We looked at the 52-week period ending on her expected due date and found the 26 weeks where she earned the most income.
At the shoe shop, Hannah earned $920 a week. This is less than the $1,100 she’s now earning at the XYZ Hotel.
She earned $18,700 over 17 weeks at the XYZ Hotel, and $8,280 for the remaining 9 weeks at the shoe shop.
That means she earned a total of $26,980 over the 26-week period. We divided this figure by 26 to give us Hannah’s average weekly income.
$26,980/26 = $1,037.69.
Hannah’s average weekly income is $1,037.69.
Hannah’s paid parental leave entitlement
The larger of the 2 figures is the ordinary weekly pay of $1,100.
The maximum of $712.17 applies, so Hannah’s paid parental leave entitlement is $712.17 a week, and she’ll get $1,424.34 (less deductions) paid into her bank account every fortnight.
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