Parental leave makes progress

Both employers and the government are helping to ease the financial costs of raising children

If you are thinking of having a baby, it can make a big difference if at least one partner, but preferably both, is employed by a company that offers generous paid leave.

When I last wrote about paid parental leave several years ago, the best employer scheme I could find offered 18 weeks. This time I found several companies offering 26 weeks for either partner and many more offering 18 weeks.

When I had my kids, very few workplaces offered paid parental leave. My partner and I had to fund my time out of the workforce, and this meant there was a lot of pressure to return to work quickly to pay the mortgage.

These days around 60% of employers pay parental leave, according to insights gathered from the 2020-21 census by the government’s Workplace Gender Equality Agency.

Large organisations are more likely to offer paid parental leave than small businesses.

But the length of leave varies. While only 6% of companies pay more than 18 weeks, the average is between seven and 12 weeks for employers of 100 or more staff members.

If your employer doesn’t pay parental leave or pays for only a short period, the government pays for 18 weeks for the primary carer and two weeks for the partner. But in last year’s budget, it announced it is raising this to 26 weeks, in staggered periods of two weeks, from July 2024 to July 2026.

How much you get

Parental leave pay from the government is currently $812.45 a week ($162.49 a working day before tax).