Maternity pay calculator
What Statutory Maternity Pay comes to across the 39 paid weeks, and how far it falls short of normal pay.
- Average weekly earnings
- £0
- 6 weeks at 90%
- £0
- 33 weeks at the lower rate
- £0
- Statutory pay, 39 weeks
- £0
Two stages, and the cliff between them
Statutory Maternity Pay runs for 39 weeks in two parts. The first six weeks pay 90% of your average weekly earnings with no upper limit. The next thirty-three pay whichever is lower of the flat rate or 90% of your earnings.
For most people the flat rate is far below 90% of their pay, so income drops sharply in week seven. That date matters more than the total does: it is the point at which the household budget changes, and it arrives about six weeks after the birth, when nobody is in a state to plan.
Leave is 52 weeks, pay is 39
You can take up to a year of leave, but only 39 weeks of it are paid under the statutory scheme. The final thirteen weeks are unpaid unless your employer offers more. Anyone planning a full year should count that quarter as having no income from work at all.
Your employer may pay more
Statutory is the floor, not the norm. Enhanced schemes are common, often full pay for the first three months and half pay after, and they sit on top of these figures rather than replacing them. Some carry a condition that you repay the enhancement if you do not return, which is worth reading before you rely on it.
What comes off the top
Maternity pay is earnings, so income tax, National Insurance and any student loan repayment come out of it. The figures here are gross. On the flat rate most people fall below the tax and National Insurance thresholds for those weeks, so the net figure is often closer to the gross one than they expect, which is the one piece of good news in the arithmetic.
Common questions
- Is this what my employer will pay me?
- It is the statutory minimum, which every qualifying employee gets. Many employers pay more, often full pay for the first few months, and an enhanced scheme sits on top of these figures rather than replacing them. Check your contract or staff handbook: the difference between statutory and enhanced is frequently thousands of pounds.
- What are the 39 weeks made of?
- Six weeks at 90% of your average weekly earnings with no cap, then thirty-three weeks at whichever is lower of the flat rate or 90% of your earnings. You can take up to 52 weeks of leave, but only 39 of them are paid, so the last 13 are unpaid unless your employer says otherwise.
- Why do the first six weeks pay so much more?
- Because they are uncapped. Ninety per cent of your actual earnings for six weeks, then the flat rate takes over and the amount usually drops sharply. For anyone earning above roughly £11,200 a year, week seven is where the income falls, and it is worth knowing that date before it arrives.
- Is Statutory Maternity Pay taxed?
- Yes. It is treated as earnings, so income tax and National Insurance come off it in the normal way, and any student loan repayments too. The figures here are gross, before those deductions.
- What if I earn too little to qualify?
- If your average weekly earnings are below the lower earnings limit you do not qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay, but you may be able to claim Maternity Allowance from the Department for Work and Pensions instead. That is a separate benefit with its own rules.