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 will 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 funds into your nominated business bank account before your employee’s usual pay cycle cut off. Normally this will be 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 6-weekly. We’ll send you a payment advice every time we deposit funds into your account. You’re only required to pay the funds up until 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 the 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 it in one lump sum and your employee can’t 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 periods in the future.

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

Everyone gets Parental Leave Pay at the same weekly payment rate. This is regardless of what days your employee was working, 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

Depending on their circumstances, they may get up to 24 weeks of Parental Leave Pay.

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

Your employee’s block of Parental Leave Pay may change depending on their circumstances. If their circumstances change and their block gets shortened, you may be required to provide Parental Leave Pay to your employee 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 has ended, starting from July 2026.

While you’re not required to pay superannuation contributions on Parental Leave Pay, you can still make voluntary contributions if you choose to.

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 paying it. 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 to which the Parental Leave Pay relates
• 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. For example, if you make superannuation contributions or deduct child support. The record should include both:

• the amount of the deduction
• the name and number of the account into which the deduction’s 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 separately identify 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, you should discuss this directly with them first. Remember, you must do all of the following:

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

Meeting your obligations

Financial infringements or penalties may apply if you fail to meet your obligations under the Paid Parental Leave scheme.

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