Paid Parental Leave

This section brings together basic information about the rights and obligations of employeesemployers and self-employed people in respect of parental leave. It contains the current parental leave entitlements, featuring statutory paid parental leave for birth mothers, their partners, as well as adoptive parents.

What to expect

  • Paid parental leave is currently 18 weeks. This will be increased to 22 weeks from 1 July 2018 with a further increase to 26 weeks from 1 July 2020.  You will need to tell your employer of your intention to take parental leave and apply through the IRD.
  • You may be eligible for a Working for Families tax credit.  You will need to apply for this through the IRD.  You can choose to have this paid out either weekly, fortnightly, or as a lump sum at the end of the tax year.

 

The Government made changes to parental leave provisions that came into effect on 1 April 2016. These include:

  • Extending parental leave payments to non-standard workers (such as casual, seasonal, and employees with more than one employer) and those who have recently changed jobs.
  •  Extending entitlements to ‘primary carers’, such as Home for Life parents, whāngai, grandparents and others with permanent care arrangements.
  • Enabling employees to take the leave more flexibly, by mutual agreement with the employer.

Forms

Scenarios and Problems

 

Further information is available from:

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment on 0800 20 90 20 or the website www.dol.govt.nz