Parental leave in New Zealand, explained

Parental leave is the leave type with the most moving parts and the fewest occasions to practise. A small employer might handle it once every few years, and each time the rules have shifted a little. The vocabulary doesn't help: primary carer leave, partner's leave, extended leave, special leave, negotiated carer leave, keeping-in-touch days, parental leave payments, preterm baby payments.

This guide puts the pieces in order: who qualifies, what leave exists, how long it lasts, what the Government pays, the notice timetable, what the employer must and must not do, and the two traps that catch payroll (annual leave after parental leave, and public holidays during it). It is part of our plain-English series on NZ employment leave.

Quick answers

The two employment tests (s 2BA)

Almost every entitlement in the PLEPA depends on one of two tests, both measured against the expected date of delivery (or the date the employee expects to take over care of the child):

• 6-month employment test: the employee will have been employed by the same employer for at least an average of 10 hours a week in the 6 months immediately before that date.
• 12-month employment test: the same, over 12 months.

A separate parental leave payment threshold test (s 2BA(4)) governs the Government payment: at least an average of 10 hours a week in any 26 of the 52 weeks before the date, with any employer or self-employed. An employee can qualify for the payment without qualifying for leave from their current employer, and vice versa.

Who is the primary carer (s 7)

The primary carer is the person the leave and payments are built around:

1. the biological mother, or
2. her spouse or partner, if the mother transfers all or part of her payment entitlement to them (s 71E), or in specific circumstances such as the mother's death; or
3. any other person who takes permanent primary responsibility for the care, development and upbringing of a child under 6, for example through adoption, whāngai or a permanent care arrangement. If two people qualify (a couple adopting), they nominate one (s 7(2)).

Temporary foster placements and grandparents who mind a child while the parents work are not primary carers, because the responsibility is not permanent or not primary. The Act gives these as its own examples.

The types of leave

Primary carer leave (ss 8–14)

Up to 26 weeks, taken as one continuous period (s 9(1)), for a primary carer who meets the 6-month or 12-month test. For a birth, it starts on the date of birth, or up to 6 weeks earlier at the employee's choice with 21 days' notice (ss 10, 11, 37), or earlier by agreement (s 12), or earlier on a medical practitioner's or midwife's certificate (s 13). A pregnant employee is entitled to at least 20 weeks of the leave after the expected due date, so an early start doesn't eat into the post-birth period (s 9(2)). For a non-birth primary carer it starts when they take over care of the child.

Partner's leave (ss 17–22)

The spouse or partner of the primary carer, who assumes or intends to assume responsibility for the child's care, may take 1 week (6-month test) or 2 weeks (12-month test) of partner's leave, in one continuous period (s 19). It can start anywhere from 21 days before the expected birth to 21 days after the actual birth (or later if the baby is still in hospital), or on any date agreed with the employer (ss 21, 22). Taking partner's leave does not reduce the couple's extended leave (s 26(5)).

Extended leave (ss 23–29)

Extended leave is the long tail. The maximum an individual can take is 26 weeks (6-month test) or 52 weeks (12-month test) per child (s 26(1)). Where both partners are entitled, the combined maximum is 52 weeks if both meet the 12-month test (or one meets 12 and the other 6), and 26 weeks if both meet only the 6-month test (s 26(2)). Crucially, the combined entitlement is reduced by any primary carer leave taken (s 26(3)). So a couple where the mother takes 26 weeks of primary carer leave has 26 weeks of extended leave left between them, in total, not each.

It can be taken in one or more periods, on dates agreed with the employer (s 27(2)), starting when primary carer or partner's leave ends and finishing by the child's first birthday (12-month test) or 6 months of age (6-month test), or the equivalent anniversaries of taking over care (s 27(3)). Partners can take it consecutively or at the same time (s 29).

Special leave (s 15)

A pregnant employee may take up to 10 days of unpaid special leave for reasons connected with the pregnancy, such as antenatal appointments, before primary carer leave starts. It does not reduce any other entitlement.

Negotiated carer leave (Part 3A)

A primary carer who doesn't meet the 6-month test (too new in the job) can request negotiated carer leave. The employer must consider it and respond, and may refuse on business grounds, but must follow the process. If granted, the employee may still qualify for the Government payment under the 26-of-52-weeks test.

Parental leave payments (Part 7A)

The Government, through Inland Revenue, pays parental leave payments to an eligible primary carer for a continuous period of up to 26 weeks (s 71J). The employer's only role is to confirm the employee's details when asked; the employer does not pay and does not top up unless it chooses to.

Applications go to Inland Revenue, and the application must be made before the parental leave period ends or the employee returns to work. The IRD paid parental leave pages have the forms and current rates.

The notice timetable

The PLEPA is strict on notice, and most disputes trace back to a missed date.

Failing to give notice on time can cost the employee the leave, but employers should get advice before relying on that; the Employment Relations Authority does not look kindly on technical refusals where the employer had actual notice.

What the employer must do, and must not do

• Keep the position open. The employer is presumed able to keep the job open until the leave ends, unless it proves a redundancy situation or, for leave longer than 4 weeks, that a temporary replacement is not reasonably practicable because the employee holds a key position (ss 40, 41). Key position is judged on the size of the business and the skills and training involved; it is not "we'd rather not". If the job can't be kept open, the employee gets a 26-week period of preference for any substantially similar vacancy (s 38(b)(ii)).
• No pay is owed for the leave itself (s 42(1)). Employers may top up voluntarily.
• Service is continuous. Parental leave doesn't break service for any right that depends on unbroken service, and counts as time served under the agreement (s 43). Under the Holidays Act it counts toward the 12 months for annual holidays (Holidays Act s 16(2)(a)(ii)).
• No dismissal because of pregnancy or parental leave (s 49), and special protections during the leave and the 26 weeks after (ss 50–52). A dismissal in that window has to be shown to be unrelated.
• Temporary transfer is allowed if pregnancy makes the job unsafe or impossible to perform adequately, and if no suitable work exists the employer can direct an early start to primary carer leave (ss 14, 16), subject to the 20-weeks-after-due-date guarantee.
• Replacement staff must be told in writing that the role is temporary to cover parental leave, or the replacement may become permanent (s 48).

Two payroll traps

Trap 1: annual leave after parental leave is paid at average weekly earnings only (s 42(2))

Annual holidays keep accruing during parental leave. But if the employee becomes entitled to annual holidays during the parental leave, during a preference period, or in the 12 months after returning, those holidays are paid at average weekly earnings only, not the usual greater of ordinary weekly pay and average weekly earnings (s 42(2)). Because average weekly earnings is 1/52 of gross earnings over a year that included months of unpaid leave, the rate can be a fraction of a normal week's pay, sometimes close to zero.

Employers are free to pay more, and many do because the rule is widely seen as unfair. It is repealed on 6 August 2028 (Employment Leave Act 2026, s 184).

Trap 2: public holidays during parental leave

A public holiday during parental leave is not a paid day, because it is not a day the employee would otherwise have worked. The Holidays Act's reasonable-expectations test (s 12) points that way now, and the Employment Leave Act makes it explicit from 2028 (ELA s 16(1)(a)). Sick leave and bereavement leave likewise aren't used during parental leave. The one thing that does continue is the annual leave accrual described above.

Returning to work, and not returning

• If the employee doesn't return without good cause, or says before the end that they won't, employment is treated as having ended when the leave began (s 46), unless otherwise agreed. Final pay follows the normal Holidays Act termination rules.
• Leave can end early by agreement, or automatically if the employee stops being the primary carer, or after a miscarriage or the death of the child (s 45(1)); the employer may ask a birth mother for a fitness certificate before an early return (s 45(2)).
• Leave can be extended by agreement, within the statutory maximums (s 45(3)–(4)).
• An employee returning to work may request flexible working under Part 6AA of the Employment Relations Act 2000; the employer must respond within a month and may refuse only on listed business grounds.

What changes, and when

From 1 July 2027: how the payment rate is calculated

The Employment Leave Act 2026 amends s 71M for applications received on or after 1 July 2027 (ELA ss 2(2)(b), 186 and Schedule 4). The first limb of the rate, currently "100% of ordinary weekly pay before the payments start", becomes 100% of the average of the employee's gross weekly earnings from all employments for the most recent regular pay periods covering roughly 4 weeks (four weekly pays, two fortnightly, one monthly) as at the application or start date. The second limb, average weekly income over the best 26 of the last 52 weeks, stays. The weekly cap stays. The definition of ordinary weekly pay is removed from the PLEPA because the new Act abolishes the concept (ELA s 185).

For most employees on a stable wage the result is the same. It matters for people whose recent pay differed from their contractual "ordinary week", and it removes an argument about what ordinary weekly pay meant for variable-hours employees.

From 6 August 2028: leave accrual and pay after parental leave

• Section 42(2) is repealed (ELA s 184). Annual leave taken after parental leave is paid at the same leave payment rate as any other annual leave.
• Accrual during parental leave is based on the employee's standard hours before the leave. A temporary change to hours agreed in the 3 months before the leave is ignored, so reducing hours late in pregnancy doesn't reduce the leave that accrues while away (ELA ss 23(3), 73(2)).
• A public holiday during parental leave is expressly not an otherwise working day (ELA s 16(1)(a)).
• The 13-week otherwise working day lookback restarts after parental leave: only weeks after the return count, and if there hasn't yet been a matching weekday since the return, the public holiday is not an otherwise working day (ELA s 13(1)(b), (2)).

Frequently asked questions

Sources