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Maternity leave is a crucial part of your employee’s rights and you need to treat it with care. At Charlie, we do offer more than statutory maternity leave, but it’s not always the case for small businesses.
To help you understand what the law says about maternity leave, and what you can implement on top of it, we’ve put together this guide for you covering:
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The correct information regarding the key dates for your employees’ maternity leave so you can avoid making mistakes
- The employment law requirements you need to pay attention to when dealing with requests
- Common questions businesses ask themselves when someone goes on maternity leave
- Extra advice from a small business
What is Statutory Paid Maternity – a summary
If your employee has worked enough time at the company, they’ll be entitled to Maternity Leave. Here is a summary of what our calculator helps you figure out and what the rights of your team member are:
- Your team member is entitled to at least 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave if they have worked for you for 26 weeks continuously when they reach the 15th week before the due date
- The first 6 weeks of maternity leave are paid at 90% of their average weekly earnings, and then goes to statutory rate or 90% of their average weekly earnings depending on whichever is lower for the next 33 weeks
- An employee has to inform their employer they want to take maternity leave at the latest before or on the 15th week before the due date
- The maternity leave can start 11 weeks before the expected week of childbirth, or start as soon as the baby is born
- If there is sick leave related to the pregnancy 4 weeks before the due date, maternity leave is automatically triggered
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Additional information for maternity leave calculation
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2 weeks of leave are mandatory after the baby is born
- Maternity leave can be extended to up to 52 weeks, so an extra 26 weeks after the ordinary maternity leave allowance of 26 weeks
- Team members have to give 8 weeks’ notice to their employer if they want to change their return-to-work date
- If the team member is not eligible for SMP, then they may have a possibility to get maternity allowance. You need to inform them within 7 days if they’re not entitled to maternity leave.
FAQ for Maternity Leave Calculator
Maternity leave is calculated from the baby’s due date:
- The standard maternity leave is made of 26 weeks
- Mothers can start their maternity leave 11 weeks before the due date
To calculate how much maternity leave (paid) your team member is entitled to, they simply need to decide when they would like to take your maternity leave in reference to your baby’s due date, as well as the date where they want to start your maternity leave.
So, for example:
- Baby’s due date: 25/11/2024
- Paid Maternity leave starts on: 11/11/2024
- Paid Maternity leave ends on: 30/06/2024
Full maternity leave is made of 26 weeks (about 6 months) for ordinary maternity leave. This is not mandatory, but it is mandatory to at least take two weeks after the birth of the child. For additional maternity leave, you can add another 26 weeks for a total of 52 weeks which is the equivalent of a year.
Maternity leave is the amount of time off work your team member decided to take when their child is born – so, for example, they will be off for 36 weeks because they’ve decided to come back to work after the standard period but not take the full extended leave.
Maternity pay means the amount of time your team member will be paid for the time off they’re taking – in the UK, maternity paid leave starts in the first 6 weeks at 90% of your team member’s wages and then reduces to Statutory Pay (£184.03 per week for 2023-2024), or 90% of your team member’s earnings for the next 33 weeks (depending on what’s lower).
After the 39 weeks (6 weeks at 90% and 33 weeks at Statutory), an employer is not obligated to pay anymore.
It really depends on the company’s policy, but if you don’t have a specific maternity leave policy, they’ll have a standard one according to UK employment law.
This means that:
- The employee will be paid 90% of their earnings for the first six weeks of their maternity leave
- The employee will be then paid Statutory Maternity Pay – which is £172,48 per week or 90% of their earnings, whichever is lower for the next 33 weeks
At least 15 weeks before the due date, your team member will have to provide a certificate called form MATB1 – this is given after the 20-week scan by the midwife or doctor and proves the pregnancy.
These are the following:
- 52 weeks’ maternity leave in total
- 39 weeks of maternity paid if they meet the criteria
- Being legally classed as an employee which means they still have all their employees’ rights apart from their pay
- Having the right to be offered another suitable job if they become at risk of redundancy during their leave and for 18 months afterwards
- Asking for a flexible arrangement once they return to work
- Getting protection against unfair treatment, dismissal or discrimination due to the pregnancy
- Having 10 “keeping-in-touch” days during their maternity leave
Maternity leave policy: what we do at CharlieHR
Although many businesses decide to only offer statutory maternity leave because they don’t feel like they can afford to have a fully built policy, we wanted to share some of what we offer at Charlie to give you some inspiration.
At Charlie, here’s what our team members get:
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Equal benefits for parents (regardless of their gender) if they’ve been employed for at least 15 weeks before the baby is due
- If they’ve been employed for less than 15 weeks, we will pay for Statutory Maternity Leave
- 10 weeks of fully paid leave and another 10 weeks at 50% of their full salary
- After this, 8 weeks of leave paid at 25%
- Following this, 11 weeks at the statutory pay rate for mothers only
We believe all team members should be able to have as much time off as they need to adapt to a life-changing event such as a baby. Maybe thinking about doing the same could also help your business.
Check out this policy in our public handbook!
Extra resources on maternity leave
We’ve put together some helpful guides when it comes to maternity more types of leave. Check it out below:
- Managing maternity leave at a small business
- Maternity leave letters template
- Paternity leave: complete guide
- What is parental leave and shared parental leave?
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