Paid parental leave over up to 26 weeks.
Weekly parental leave pay
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Total over the leave period (gross)
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Your breakdown
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How the government payment is worked out
Paid parental leave in New Zealand is funded by the government and paid through Inland Revenue, not by your employer. For an employee, it replaces your ordinary weekly pay up to a statutory maximum, for up to 26 weeks. The structure is a simple lesser-of: you receive your usual weekly earnings, but never more than the cap that IRD sets and reviews each July. This tool takes your usual weekly pay and the current maximum, applies the cap, and multiplies out across the weeks of leave you plan to take.
The maximum weekly rate in this calculator is $754.87 before tax. If you earn less than that in a normal week, you get your actual pay. If you earn more, the cap bites and the difference is income the scheme does not cover, which is the gap most working parents need to plan around.
A higher earner who hits the cap
Say your usual pay is $1,100 a week before tax and you take the full 26 weeks. Because $1,100 is above the $754.87 maximum, your parental leave pay is capped at $754.87 a week. Over 26 weeks that totals $19,627 gross. The $345 a week between your normal pay and the capped payment is the shortfall you would either save towards in advance or cover from other income.
The chart contrasts what 26 weeks of usual pay would have been against what the scheme actually pays once the cap applies.
It is taxable, and the self-employed rule is different
Parental leave pay is taxable income, so PAYE comes off it just like a wage, and your take-home will be less than the $19,627 gross above. Get your tax code right when you apply, because if parental leave is your only income for the period your average tax rate may be lower than it was on a full salary, and using the wrong code can leave you over or under taxed. The payment can also interact with other entitlements, so it is worth checking how it sits alongside Working for Families tax credits and the Best Start payment for a new baby, which run separately.
Self-employed parents are covered too, but the rule differs. Instead of ordinary weekly pay, a self-employed applicant receives the greater of their average weekly earnings from the business or a set minimum weekly rate, again capped at the same statutory maximum. That floor matters for a parent whose drawings have been low while reinvesting in the business, because it guarantees a baseline payment rather than leaving them with almost nothing. A practical tip for the self-employed: keep clean records of your earnings in the year before the baby arrives, since that is what the entitlement is calculated from.
Can my partner and I share the leave?
Yes. The entitlement can be transferred between eligible partners, so the leave and the payment do not have to sit entirely with the birth parent. Couples increasingly split the period to suit their work and care arrangements. Each person needs to meet the eligibility tests in their own right, and you coordinate the transfer through the application, so plan it together before either of you stops work.
Does taking parental leave reduce my KiwiSaver?
While you are on government-paid parental leave, employer contributions and the automatic 3 percent employee deductions do not apply in the way they do to a salary, so your KiwiSaver inflows can pause unless you choose to keep contributing voluntarily. Some parents make voluntary contributions to stay on track for the annual government contribution. It is a small thing that is easy to overlook during a busy year, so flag it before your leave starts.