Maternity leave.

Almost every Australian says maternity leave, and almost no Australian law uses the phrase. There is no entitlement anywhere in the Fair Work Act 2009 called maternity leave. What actually exists is two completely separate systems that happen to run at the same time: unpaid parental leave from your employer under the National Employment Standards, and Parental Leave Pay from Services Australia, funded by the Commonwealth. One protects your job. The other pays you money. They have different eligibility tests, different administrators and different timeframes, and confusing them is the single most common reason people plan their leave badly. This guide untangles them for the birth parent, with the figures verified on 26 July 2026. If you want to model your own dates and days, use the parental leave calculator.

There is no entitlement called "maternity leave"

Search the National Employment Standards and you will find annual leave, personal leave, compassionate leave, community service leave and parental leave. You will not find maternity leave, paternity leave or adoption leave as separate named entitlements. Since 2009, Australian law has used one gender-neutral entitlement, parental leave, that applies to a birth parent, a partner, an adoptive parent and a gaining parent in a surrogacy arrangement alike. You can see where it sits among the other minimum standards in our National Employment Standards guide.

That matters practically, not just semantically. When a manager says "we give six months maternity leave", they are usually describing an employer-fundedpaid parental leave policy sitting on top of the legal minimum. When a friend says "I got 26 weeks of maternity leave", they usually mean government Parental Leave Pay. Neither is the NES entitlement, and neither one automatically gives you the other. The word "maternity leave" is a bucket that people drop three different things into: the government payment, the employer policy, and the legal right to take time off. You need to work out which of the three you are actually asking about.

The two systems, side by side

Here is the single most useful table on this page. Read it as two columns you have to satisfy separately. You can qualify for one and not the other. Plenty of people qualify for the government payment but have not been with their employer long enough for job-protected leave, and plenty of long-serving employees earn too much to pass the income test.

Unpaid parental leave: what your employer must give you

Each eligible parent can take up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave. Your entitlement is not reduced by how much leave your partner takes, and the two of you can be working for the same employer or different ones. Before the initial 12 months ends you can request a further 12 months, taking you to 24 months in total. That request has to be in writing and given at least 4 weeks before your initial period ends. Your employer must respond in writing within 21 days and can only refuse on reasonable business grounds, after genuinely trying to reach agreement and considering the consequences of refusal for you. A refusal must spell out the grounds relied on, state what extension (if any) the employer would agree to, and explain the dispute process.

The leave does not have to be one long block. You can take it as a single continuous period, as flexible unpaid parental leave taken a day at a time, or a combination. For a child born or placed for adoption on or after 1 July 2026, up to 130 of your days can be taken flexibly at any point within 24 months of the birth or placement. A pregnant employee can start leave up to 6 weeks before the expected date of birth, or earlier if the employer agrees, and all parental leave must end within 24 months of the birth.

Notice and evidence. You are not entitled to the leave unless you give notice properly. You must tell your employer in writing at least 10 weeks before you intend to start, specifying the start and end dates of any continuous leave and the total number of flexible days you intend to take. Then, at least 4 weeks before the start date, you confirm those dates or advise of changes. If 10 weeks is not possible, for example because the baby arrives early, you give notice as soon as you can. Flexible days need a further 4 weeks of notice of the specific dates. Your employer can ask for evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person of the expected date of birth, which usually means a medical certificate. If you do not provide requested evidence, you are not entitled to the leave.

Keeping in touch days. While on a continuous period of unpaid parental leave you can agree with your employer to work up to 10 keeping in touch days in the first 12 month period, and another 10 if you extend beyond 12 months, so up to 20 in total. They exist to help your eventual return to work: training, a planning day, a conference, refreshing skills. You are paid your normal wage and you accrue leave for the time worked, and the days do not extend or shorten your parental leave. A part day still burns a full day off your balance. You cannot take one in the first 14 days after the birth or placement, and only after 42 days can your employer be the one to suggest it. Keeping in touch days are not available during flexible unpaid parental leave.

Return to work guarantee. You are entitled to return to the job you held before you went on leave, even if a replacement employee is doing it. If you had been transferred to a safe job or reduced your hours because of the pregnancy, you return to the role you held before that change. If your pre-leave position genuinely no longer exists, you must be offered an available position you are qualified and suited for that is nearest in status and pay. If nothing suitable exists, that may be a redundancy, with all the usual obligations. Your employer must also keep you informed of, and give you a chance to discuss, any decision that will significantly affect the status, pay or location of your pre-leave position.

Who is eligible, and how it works for casuals

The test is simple to state: you must have or will have responsibility for the care of the child, and you must have worked for your employer for at least 12 months of continuous service measured before the date or expected date of birth if you are pregnant, before the date of adoption, or when the leave starts.

Casuals are not excluded, which surprises a lot of people. An eligible casual is one who has been working for the employer on a regular and systematic basis for at least 12 months and who has a reasonable expectation of that work continuing, had it not been for the birth or adoption. A casual who meets both limbs gets the same 12 months of unpaid parental leave as a permanent employee, and can request the same extension. A casual who has been in the job for two months does not, however regular the shifts. Our casual versus permanent guide covers where else that regular and systematic test bites.

Once you have cleared the 12 month bar with an employer, you do not have to clear it again for a second child. If you stay with the same employer, you are entitled to parental leave for the next baby without working another qualifying 12 months. Change employers in between, and the clock restarts with the new one.

One important carve-out runs the other way. Every pregnant employee has the right to a safe job, including casuals and including those who have not reached 12 months of service. That entitlement is not conditional on qualifying for parental leave.

Government Parental Leave Pay, as at 26 July 2026

Parental Leave Pay is a taxable payment from Services Australia, paid at a flat rate based on the national minimum wage regardless of what you actually earned. It is counted in days, not weeks, which is why the numbers look unfamiliar.

• Rate. In the 2026-27 financial year, $200.94 a day before tax, or $1,004.70 for a 5 day week. In 2025-26 it was $189.62 a day, or $948.10 a week. The rate you get is the one applying in the financial year of the days you claim, not the year your child was born, so a claim spanning 30 June and 1 July can pay two different rates.
• How many days. For a child born or adopted from 1 July 2026, a family can get up to 130 days, which is 26 weeks based on a 5 day work week. For a child from 1 July 2025 it was 120 days, and from 1 July 2024 it was 110 days.
• Days reserved for a partner. If you are partnered, 20 of those 130 days are reserved for the other parent and cannot be transferred, so the maximum one partnered parent can take is 110 days. Single parents can get all 130. Parents can take up to 20 days at the same time.
• Income test. You must have an individual adjusted taxable income of $186,487 or less in the 2025-26 financial year ($180,007 or less for 2024-25). If you fail that, you can still qualify on the family income test: combined income of $386,525 or less in 2025-26 ($373,094 for 2024-25). Services Australia uses the financial year before the earlier of the birth or adoption date and the date you lodge your claim.
• Work test. You must have worked in 10 of the 13 months before the birth or adoption, and for at least 330 hours in those 10 months, which is roughly one day a week. You cannot have a gap of more than 12 weeks between work days in that 10 month window. Work for multiple employers counts, paid leave counts, and self-employment counts. Exceptions apply for pregnancy-related illness, complications and premature birth.
• Residence. You must also meet the residence rules, and for a newborn you must have registered or applied to register the birth.

Parental Leave Pay is money. It does not give you time off, does not protect your job, and does not require you to be on unpaid parental leave to receive it. You can take it before, after or at the same time as annual leave, long service leave, employer-funded paid parental leave or NES unpaid parental leave. That flexibility is the point: a birth parent commonly stacks employer-paid leave first, then Parental Leave Pay, then unpaid time, to stretch the total period at home.

Superannuation on Parental Leave Pay: this changed recently

For most of the scheme's history, government Parental Leave Pay attracted no superannuation at all, which quietly cost birth parents years of compounding. That has changed. If your child is born or adopted from 1 July 2025 and you receive Parental Leave Pay from Services Australia, the Australian Taxation Office pays a Paid Parental Leave Superannuation Contribution (PPLSC) into your super fund. The mechanics of that contribution, including the interest component and when it lands, are set out in super on Parental Leave Pay.

The key mechanics are worth knowing, because it does not behave like ordinary employer super:

• It is calculated on the Parental Leave Pay you received, at the super guarantee rate, which is 12% for both 2025-26 and 2026-27.
• It includes an interest component and is paid as a lump sum after the end of the financial year in which you received the payment, not fortnightly. The first contributions are being paid in the 2026-27 financial year.
• You do not lodge a separate claim. It happens automatically, so long as your name, address and tax file number match between the ATO, Services Australia and your super fund.
• If you share Parental Leave Pay with another parent, each of you gets a contribution based on your own portion.
• It is taxed at 15% in the fund and counts towards your concessional contributions cap, but it is not treated as income for social security, family assistance or child support purposes.

This is separate from any super your employer may pay on its own paid parental leave scheme, which is a matter for your contract, policy, award or agreement. Check the award that covers you, because some awards require super on paid parental leave even though the super guarantee law does not.

Does unpaid parental leave count as service?

This is the question that costs people the most money and gets answered wrongly most often. The correct answer is: unpaid parental leave does not break your continuous service, but for most purposes it does not count towards it either. Those are two different ideas and the distinction is worth real dollars.

Not breaking service means you do not restart as a new employee when you come back. Not counting means the months you were away are subtracted when your employer works out how much you have accrued. In practice:

• Annual leave and personal leave: you do not accrue during unpaid parental leave. You do keep accruing on any keeping in touch day you work, and during any period of paid leave (such as annual leave) that you take at the same time. See do you accrue leave while on leave for the wider rule.
• Redundancy pay: the unpaid period does not count. If you had 6 years of service, took 12 months of unpaid parental leave, then worked another year before being made redundant, your employer counts 7 years of service, not 8.
• Notice of termination: the unpaid period does count. For notice, the whole period of employment is counted, including the year on unpaid parental leave. So on those same facts, notice is worked out on 8 years.
• Qualifying for parental leave again, and for flexible working requests: the unpaid period does count.
• Long service leave: it depends on your state or territory, since long service leave is governed by state and territory legislation rather than the NES. Some jurisdictions count parental leave towards the qualifying period, some do not. Check your local rules.

Note that unauthorised absences are different again: they neither count as service nor, on their own, break it. For the general treatment of other unpaid absences, see our leave without pay guide.

Special parental leave, safe jobs and no safe job leave

The entitlement people still call special maternity leave exists, and the Fair Work Ombudsman now calls it unpaid special parental leave. A pregnant employee who is eligible for unpaid parental leave can take it if she is not fit for work because of a pregnancy-related illness, or because of a pregnancy loss after 12 weeks where the baby is not stillborn. The crucial feature is that it does not reduce your 12 months of unpaid parental leave. Four weeks of unpaid special parental leave before the birth still leaves a full 12 month entitlement afterwards. Notice must be given as soon as possible, which can be after the leave has started, and the employer can ask for a medical certificate. Pregnancy itself is not an illness, so ordinary paid sick leave is available for pregnancy-related illness too, and most people use accrued paid leave before falling back on the unpaid entitlement.

Separately, every pregnant employee has a right to a safe job. If you provide evidence that you are fit for work but it is inadvisable for you to continue in your current role because of illness or risk arising from the pregnancy, or hazards connected with the position, your employer must transfer you to an appropriate safe job for the risk period. The safe job must have the same ordinary hours unless you agree otherwise, and you must be paid at your full rate of pay for the position you held before the transfer, for the hours you work. If your hours change you may receive different penalties, loadings and allowances.

If no appropriate safe job exists, you take no safe job leave. If you are entitled to unpaid parental leave and have complied with the notice and evidence rules, that leave is paid, at your base rate for your ordinary hours. If you are not entitled to unpaid parental leave, it is unpaid. In the 6 weeks before your expected date of birth, your employer can ask for a further medical certificate confirming fitness for work, and can direct you to start unpaid parental leave if you do not supply one within 7 days or the certificate says you are not fit.

A worked example with current figures

Aisha is a full-time employee who has been with the same employer for 5 years. Her baby is born on 12 August 2026. Her adjusted taxable income in 2025-26 was $95,000, she worked full-time throughout the year before the birth, and she has a partner, Sam, who also works.

Figures used in this example were verified on 26 July 2026 against Services Australia and the ATO. Parental Leave Pay rates and income test thresholds are re-indexed each 1 July, and the number of available days has increased in each of the last three years, so always re-check the current figures before relying on them.

Frequently asked questions

Is maternity leave paid in Australia?

Not by your employer, unless your contract, policy, award or enterprise agreement says so. The NES entitlement is unpaid. The paid component most people mean is government Parental Leave Pay from Services Australia, which is a separate scheme with its own work test, income test and residence rules. Many employers voluntarily offer employer-funded paid parental leave on top, and that sits entirely outside the NES.

How long is maternity leave in Australia?

Up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave from your employer, with a right to request a further 12 months, so up to 24 months in total if agreed. The government payment is shorter: up to 130 days, which is 26 weeks based on a 5 day week, for a child born or adopted from 1 July 2026. The two do not have to line up.

Can I get Parental Leave Pay and employer paid parental leave at the same time?

Yes. Parental Leave Pay can be received before, after or at the same time as employer-funded paid parental leave, annual leave, long service leave or unpaid parental leave. Stacking them is how most birth parents extend the time they can afford to be at home.

Do casual employees get maternity leave?

Eligible casuals do. You need to have been working for the employer on a regular and systematic basis for at least 12 months and to have had a reasonable expectation the work would continue but for the birth or adoption. Meet both limbs and you get the same 12 months of unpaid parental leave as a permanent employee. Separately, all pregnant employees, including casuals with less than 12 months of service, have the right to a safe job.

Do I keep accruing annual leave while on maternity leave?

No, not during unpaid parental leave. You do accrue on any keeping in touch day you work, and during any paid leave (such as annual leave) taken at the same time as your unpaid parental leave. If a public holiday falls while you are taking annual leave inside your unpaid parental leave period, you are not paid for it.

Does time on parental leave count for redundancy pay?

No. Unpaid parental leave does not count towards continuous service for redundancy pay, although it does not break your service either. It does count in full towards your notice of termination. That asymmetry is set by section 22 of the Fair Work Act and is one of the most commonly mishandled calculations in final pay.

What if my baby has to stay in hospital after the birth?

You can agree with your employer to put your unpaid parental leave on hold while the child is hospitalised immediately after birth, return to work, and resume the leave later without the worked period being deducted from your entitlement. The employer can ask for evidence that the child is in hospital and that you are fit for work.

Where do I find the terms used on this page?

Definitions of continuous service, base rate of pay, adjusted taxable income and the rest are in the glossary. For related reading, see our paternity leave guide, the Fair Work Act guide, or browse all guides. General questions are answered in the FAQ, and every page on the site is listed in the sitemap.

Author & reviewer

Sarah Reid, CAHRI

Certified Australian HR Practitioner · Cert IV Payroll · 12 years Fair Work compliance

Sarah has spent over a decade advising Australian SMBs on Fair Work, NES compliance, and payroll. Based in Sydney, she has worked across hospitality, retail and professional services.

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