Providing Parental Leave Pay

We’ll send you a letter to tell you how long you’ll need to provide Parental Leave Pay funds to your employee, and when we’ll send the first funding amount to you.

Getting the funds

You don’t have to provide Parental Leave Pay before you get the funds from us. We’ll transfer the funds into your nominated business bank account before your employee’s usual pay cycle cut off. Normally this is 7 days before. You don’t need to open a separate business bank account to get Parental Leave Pay funds.

You’ll get the funds in instalments, either fortnightly or every 6 weeks. We’ll send you a payment advice each time we deposit funds into your account. You only have to pay out these funds for the current pay period in which you receive them, including any arrears. Future payments should not be paid until the relevant pay cycle.

If you need to update your payment destination for these funds, you can change your business bank account details online by logging in to Business Hub through PRODA.

If you haven’t received enough funds to provide for your employee’s next payment, call us on the Paid Parental Leave scheme for employers line.

Making payments to employees

You must provide Parental Leave Pay to your employee according to their normal pay cycle. For example, if you usually pay them fortnightly in arrears, you must provide their Parental Leave Pay fortnightly after the work period ends. You can’t provide payments in one lump sum and your employee can’t choose to take it at half pay. If we pay you any arrears, you can either:

• provide these to your employee in a lump sum
• pay them according to their normal pay cycle for any future periods.

From 1 July 2025, the rate of Parental Leave Pay is $948.10 per week, before tax.

All employees get Parental Leave Pay at the same weekly payment rate. This is regardless of what days they worked, how many hours they worked, or how much they were earning before going on leave.

We’ll only ever ask you to provide the funds if your employee is taking a block of Parental Leave Pay.

How long you must pay your employee

We’ll send you a letter to tell you how long you need to provide Parental Leave Pay funds to your employee.

Your employee’s block of Parental Leave Pay may change based on their situation. If their circumstances change and their block is shortened, you may need to provide Parental Leave Pay to them for less than 8 weeks.

You only need to provide Parental Leave Pay payments once per child for each employee. We’ll tell you the exact dates you’ll need to provide Parental Leave Pay to your employee.

What deductions you can make

The only deductions you can make from an employee’s Parental Leave Pay are:

• Pay As You Go (PAYG) withholdings
• child support deductions
• automatic pay arrangement deductions
• garnishee arrangements
• voluntary superannuation contributions, including salary sacrifice.

What superannuation are they entitled to

If your employee gets government funded Parental Leave Pay for a child born or adopted from 1 July 2025, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) will pay them a superannuation contribution. This is called the Paid Parental Leave Superannuation Contribution (PPLSC). This contribution is based on the superannuation guarantee rate.

You don’t need to calculate or pay the contribution. This will be paid directly to your employee’s superannuation fund after the relevant financial year ends, starting from July 2026.

While you don’t have to pay superannuation contributions on Parental Leave Pay, you can choose to make voluntary contributions.

Read more about the Paid Parental Leave Superannuation Contribution on the ATO website.

Notifying employees

You’ll need to give your employee written notification of their Parental Leave Pay within one working day of making the payment. This can be on their usual payslip or in a separate notice, such as a letter or email.

The notification must include all of the following:

• your business or trading name
• your Australian Business Number (ABN)
• the employee’s name
• the period the Parental Leave Pay covers
• the date you paid or will pay the Parental Leave Pay
• the gross amount of Parental Leave Pay
• the total PAYG amount deducted for all taxable entitlements paid in the pay period
• the total net amount of payment.

If you make other deductions, the record must also include these details, such as superannuation contributions or child support deductions. The record should include both:

• the amount of the deduction
• the name and number of the account to which the deductions are paid.

Payment summaries

You must include Parental Leave Pay in the total amount on your employee’s annual or part year payment summary. You don’t need to separate it from other amounts.

Resolving a dispute with your employee

If your employee is concerned about the amount they get or your obligations under the scheme, discuss these issues with them first. Remember, you must do all of the following:

• provide Parental Leave Pay in their usual pay cycle
• withhold tax under the normal Pay As You Go (PAYG) arrangements
• only make deductions that are authorised
• provide your employee a payslip or other written record of Parental Leave Pay within 1 working day of the payment
• include Parental Leave Pay in their payment summary.

Meeting your obligations

If you fail to meet your obligations under the Paid Parental Leave scheme, you may face financial infringements or penalties.

We and the Fair Work Ombudsman have the power to investigate potential breaches of employer obligations and apply penalties.