Parental leave payments for eligible employees

Your weekly parental leave payment as an eligible employee is the greater of your:

ordinary weekly pay

average weekly income

up to a maximum of $811.05 gross a week (‘gross ’means before tax or any deductions).

Inland Revenue work out your parental leave payments based on information they get from your employer. They will calculate your ordinary weekly pay (OWP) and average weekly income (AWI) to work out the weekly payment.

If you’ve been employed by more than 1 employer, your OWP or AWI is based on your combined income.

Employees: how we work out your paid parental leave entitlement – Inland Revenue (external link)

Ordinary weekly pay (OWP) is the amount you’re paid for an ordinary working week. For information about how OWP is calculated, visit

Annual Holiday pay

Average weekly income (AWI) is the weekly average of what you’ve earnt over the 52-week period just before:

your baby’s due date or date of birth (if you or your partner are giving birth to the baby), or

the first date you or your partner become primary carer (if you or your partner have not given birth to the baby, for example, you’re adopting a child).

To calculate AWI, Inland Revenue will:

add up your gross weekly earnings for the 26 weeks in the 52-week period where you earned the most income

divide this by 26.

The weeks do not have to be together. For example, some of the weeks where you’ve earned the most might be in April and May, some in July, and some in October. There just needs to be a total of 26 weeks’ income over the 52-week period.