Maternity Rights
Maternity Pay
Helping Lowest Paid Women
MATERNITY RIGHTS AND PAY
- Occupational Maternity Pay leave of 26 weeks (6 months) at full pay and then further 26 weeks, that is up to 52 weeks (a full year) in total at 90 per cent of full pay. Paid by employer if waged worker.
- Both maternal and paternal leave pay to be minimum of £16 per hour for usual 35-37 hour working week, with minimum of 16 hour working week.
- Maternity Allowance benefit for lowest paid working women same as Statutory Maternity Pay.
PATERNITY LEAVE (fathers)
- Increase Paternity Leave Pay to Minimum £16 per hour pay. Paid by your employer.
- Stand-alone right to individual periods of parental leave, not reliant on other partner sacrificing some of their leave as now in shared parental leave system.
- Paternity Leave Allowance would be paid to self-employed and agency workers. Same as Maternity Allowance amount.
- Paternal leave of 26 weeks (6 months) at full pay and then further 26 weeks, that is up to 52 weeks (a full year) in total at 90 per cent of full pay. Paid by employer if waged worker.
BACKGROUND
From Maternity Action information:
..."UK mothers have some of the lowest rates of maternity pay among European countries.
From April 2024 statutory maternity and parental pay are £184.03 weekly compared to £400.40 at National Minimum Wage (for 35-hours at the adult rate per hour) and £677 average weekly earnings.
If women do not meet eligibility criteria, they may get no maternity pay at all and very little extra in benefits. The increase in low paid, insecure jobs with no employment rights means more women losing out on maternity leave and pay.
We know from Government research that only around 13% of women on maternity leave receive Occupational Maternity Pay (OMP) – a sharp decline from 44% in 2008 and 36% in 2011. This leaves the vast majority of women reliant on receiving SMP or just Maternity Allowance if they are even eligible to receive this."...
GENERAL INFORMATION
..."UK ... has 52 weeks of maternity pay”. That was also wrong. In reality, “only six of these 52 weeks attract well-paid income replacement, at 90% of previous salary; the next 33 weeks are paid but at a low flat-rate (£156.66 per week), while the remaining 13 weeks are unpaid”....
..."a survey for Unison revealed in February 2024 that “a quarter of women have gone without eating while receiving only the statutory maternity rate”. Many women, particularly from minority groups, are in insecure jobs with low pay that don’t allow them statutory maternity benefits."...
