What you are entitled to

Paid parental leave in New Zealand is paid by Inland Revenue, not by your employer, and it runs for 26 weeks — six months. Payments go into your bank account every fortnight and are treated as salary and wages, so they are taxed like ordinary income.

From 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 the rates are:

Maximum: $811.05 a week before tax (up from $788.66 for 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026)
Minimum for self-employed people: $239.50 a week before tax (up from $235)

The self-employed minimum is set at 10 hours of the adult minimum wage and is adjusted every 1 July to track the minimum wage. Over the full 26 weeks the maximum comes to just over $21,000 before tax.

Payments stop if you return to work before the 26 weeks are up, or if you stop being the child's primary carer.

How your rate is worked out

If you are an employee, Inland Revenue compares two figures and pays the larger, capped at $811.05:

your ordinary weekly pay, and
your average weekly income — the 26 weeks in the 52-week period ending on your expected due date in which you earned the most, added together and divided by 26.

Those 26 weeks do not have to be consecutive. Income from multiple employers is combined.

If you are self-employed, you take the greater of your net income over the 12 months before your due date divided by 52, or your net income over the previous six months divided by 26. If you made a loss, or earned less than the minimum wage while working at least 10 hours a week, you receive the minimum payment of $239.50. You can combine employee and self-employed income if you meet the work test separately in each capacity.

Having twins or triplets does not increase your payment.

Preterm baby payments

If your baby is born before the end of 36 weeks' gestation — that is, before week 37 — you may get preterm baby payments in addition to your 26 weeks. They last up to 13 weeks and are paid at the same rate. You cannot receive both at once: your parental leave payments normally start when the preterm payments end.

Exactly who is eligible

You must be the primary carer

A primary carer is one of three people:

the person who gave birth — which includes a surrogate, and a person who miscarries or has a stillborn baby
the spouse or partner of the person who gave birth, but only in limited cases: where they have taken over permanent primary responsibility for the child, or where the birth parent has transferred their entitlement
someone else taking permanent primary responsibility for a child under 6 — an adoptive parent, a parent whose child was born by a surrogate, a matua whāngai, a grandparent with permanent full-time care, or a permanent guardian. Part-time or temporary responsibility such as foster care does not count.

The work test

You must have worked an average of at least 10 hours a week for any 26 of the 52 weeks immediately before your expected due date, or before the date the child came into your care. The 26 weeks do not need to be consecutive, and you can combine hours across employment and self-employment.

You do not have to be working when you apply. Eligibility rests entirely on that 52-week look-back, so people who have already left a job frequently still qualify — and frequently do not realise it.

Another baby

You can get paid parental leave for a subsequent child provided at least six months have passed since the end of your last payment period, even if your partner received that last payment.

How and when to apply

Apply through myIR, Inland Revenue's online service. Apply before you start your leave wherever possible.

The deadline that costs money is this one: if you apply more than 26 weeks after your baby was born or the child came into your care, Inland Revenue pays your entitlement as a lump sum rather than fortnightly. You do not lose it, but the cash-flow shape changes completely, which matters if you were relying on a fortnightly income.

Practical points:

Tell your employer in writing of your intention to take parental leave. Employment New Zealand sets out the notice requirements, which sit under employment law rather than tax law.
Choose the right tax code. Paid parental leave is taxed as salary and wages, and the wrong code produces an end-of-year bill.
Keeping in touch hours let you do a limited amount of work for your employer without ending your payments. Check the limits before agreeing to anything.
You can transfer some or all of your entitlement to your spouse or partner if they meet the requirements.
If you sadly miscarry, or your baby is stillborn or dies after birth, you remain entitled to the 26 weeks. If your baby died after birth, Inland Revenue asks for a letter from your doctor or midwife confirming the date of birth.

If you do not qualify

Not meeting the 10-hours-a-week-for-26-weeks test is the usual reason. If that is you:

Check the 52-week window again carefully. Because the qualifying weeks need not be consecutive and hours from different jobs combine, people with patchy work records qualify more often than they expect.
Working for Families tax credits and the Best Start payment are administered by Inland Revenue and are not conditional on paid parental leave. Best Start is paid for young children and is worth checking on the day your baby is born.
Unpaid parental leave under employment law is a separate entitlement with its own qualifying rules, administered through Employment New Zealand.
Work and Income may be able to help with other support.

If you disagree with an Inland Revenue decision, you can apply to the Employment Relations Authority to review it, and you must apply within 12 months of the date you received the decision.

Where to get help

Inland Revenue is the governing authority for the payment. Use the paid parental leave section of ird.govt.nz, and message them through myIR for anything about your own file. Employment New Zealand at employment.govt.nz covers the leave entitlement itself — notice periods, job protection, and returning to work — which is a separate body of law from the payment.

Paid Parental Leave in New Zealand: rates and eligibility