Parental Leave Payment Calculator NZ 2026
Paid parental leave in New Zealand is 26 weeks of payments for an eligible primary carer, funded by Inland Revenue rather than the employer, and paid fortnightly. The amount is your own weekly income up to a maximum that changes every 1 July, which for the year to 30 June 2027 is $811.05 gross a week. That cap corresponds to roughly $42,000 of annual income, which means the majority of people who earn more than a modest wage receive the same figure and the replacement rate falls the more you earn. Eligibility turns on hours rather than money: an average of at least 10 hours a week in any 26 of the 52 weeks before the due date, and those 26 weeks do not need to be continuous. This calculator applies the cap, applies the separate minimum that exists only for self-employed parents, and shows what proportion of your normal income the payment actually replaces.
Your position
What the payment is at different pay levels
The cap flattens everything above about $811 a week, so the replacement rate falls as pay rises.
| Weekly pay | Weekly payment | Over 26 weeks | Income replaced |
|---|
The cap is where most of the story is
At $811.05 a week the maximum corresponds to roughly $42,000 a year, which is below the median full-time wage. The practical effect is that most people in full-time work receive the same capped payment regardless of what they earn, and the proportion of income replaced falls steadily as pay rises. Someone on $800 a week has almost all their income replaced; someone on $1,600 a week has about half. That matters for planning far more than the headline figure does, because the household decision about how long to take is driven by the gap rather than by the payment.
Eligibility is about hours, not earnings
The test asks whether you worked an average of at least 10 hours a week in any 26 of the 52 weeks before the due date. Two features of that wording matter. It is an average, so a week of no work does not break it. And the 26 weeks need not be continuous, which is the provision that saves people with seasonal work, broken employment, or a gap between jobs during the year. Low earnings do not disqualify you; too few hours does.
Only the self-employed have a minimum
Employees have no floor because their pay is already at least the minimum wage, so their entitlement can never be trivially small. Self-employed parents can genuinely have very low or briefly negative net income while running a real business, so a floor exists for them at $239.50 a week, which is ten hours at the adult minimum wage. It moves with the minimum wage each 1 April but only takes effect from the following 1 July, which is why the two dates differ.
Worked example
An employee has ordinary weekly pay of $1,100.00 and average weekly income of $1,050.00. The greater of the two is $1,100.00, which is above the weekly maximum, so the payment is capped at $811.05 a week.
Over 26 weeks that is $21,087.30 gross, against $28,600.00 of normal pay for the same period. The payment replaces 73.73% of their income, leaving a shortfall of $7,512.70 to cover from savings, a partner's income or annual leave.
How this is calculated
For an employee the figure used is the greater of ordinary weekly pay and average weekly income. For a self-employed parent it is the average weekly income entered. That figure is then capped at the weekly maximum of $811.05, and for the self-employed floored at $239.50. The total is the resulting weekly payment multiplied by the weeks taken, up to 26. Normal pay over the same period is your ordinary weekly pay multiplied by those weeks, the shortfall is the difference, and the replacement rate is the payment as a percentage of normal pay. The hours test is met when the average hours are at least 10 and at least 26 weeks were worked in the last 52.
Official sources
- Paid parental leave, Inland Revenue
- Parental leave payments, Employment New Zealand
- Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987, legislation.govt.nz
- Minimum wage rates, Employment New Zealand, for the self-employed minimum
Related NZ calculators
- Self-Employed Parental Leave Calculator for the two averaging methods
- Working for Families Calculator for what else you may be entitled to
- Best Start Payment Calculator for the first years after birth
- PAYE Calculator for the tax on the payment
- Annual Leave Calculator for topping up the shortfall with leave
- Parental Leave Payments Guide
This page explains how the law works and estimates figures from what you enter. It cannot tell you what will happen in your situation, because employment outcomes turn on facts, evidence and the wording of your own agreement. Nothing here creates a lawyer and client relationship.
It has not been reviewed by a lawyer. The legal descriptions are drawn from Employment New Zealand, MBIE and Inland Revenue and were checked against those sources on 7 August 2026. They are our reading of published guidance, not a practitioner's opinion, and parts of this area are very new: the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026 has been in force only since 21 February 2026 and there is little case law on how it will be applied.
Eligibility depends on more than the hours test shown here, and the income figures Inland Revenue uses come from your employer or your assessed returns rather than from what you enter.
Before you act, get advice. A community law centre is free. Employment New Zealand provides free information and mediation. An employment lawyer will tell you things no calculator can. Time limits are short and unforgiving: a personal grievance must generally be raised within 90 days, so seek advice early rather than waiting for certainty.
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