Parental leave eligibility

Employees may be able to take leave from work to care for their new child. Calculate your leave entitlement using our eligibility tool.

To be eligible for paid parental leave, you will need evidence that:

  • you work for a New Zealand employer
  • you pay income tax to New Zealand, and
  • your employment relationship is subject to New Zealand employment law. 

Parental leave eligibility tool

You can calculate how much parental leave you or your partner are entitled to by using the parental leave eligibility tool.

Answer each question to find out if, and for how long, you or your partner are entitled to parental leave.

Question 1

Are you giving birth to a child or going to be the primary carer of a child under 6 who you will have permanent responsibility for?

 

Special situations to be aware of

If you are both an employee of an organisation and run your own business as a self-employed person, you cannot combine these hours to meet the parental leave payment threshold test. You must meet the threshold test and be eligible as either an employee or as a self-employed person.

If you are a shareholder employee (i.e. owner of a company that you are employed in), you may qualify as either a self-employed person or an employee. Again, you can only meet the payment threshold test in either your employment or self-employment. However, note that if you meet the payment threshold test in each of your employment and self-employment, you can then combine the amount of earnings calculated to maximise payments you will receive during the payment period.

 

If you would normally have been but were absent due to any of the following reasons, this time is still counted towards the working period of employment for the purposes of determining whether you meet either the six or 12 month criteria for parental leave:

  • on leave with pay 
  • on leave without pay (other than parental leave) with the employer’s agreement
  • pregnant and on primary carer leave prior to the expected date of delivery
  • entitled to an ACC payment for that
  • on volunteers leave
  • absent for any other reason that doesn’t disrupt your normal pattern of employment, in the view of a Labour Inspector.

The Employment Court has previously determined that a period of time where someone has been engaged as an employee, but has not yet started ‘work’ with an employer, will not be counted towards the period of employment with that employer for the purposes of parental leave eligibility requirements.

What activities are work

Usually, an employee's old employer counts as the ‘same employer’ if:

  • a trade, business or undertaking is transferred (e.g. sold) from one employer to another
  • a body corporate is changed or replaced because of legislation
  • trustees take over the business after the employer’s death
  • there’s a change in partners, personal representatives or trustees who employ the employee
  • the employee is transferred to an 'associated employer' (e.g. a subsidiary).
  • If you’re a junior doctor working for a district health board (DHB) and you’re required to rotate between different DHBs as part of your compulsory training, your employments with each employing DHB are treated as one employment for the purposes of determining whether you meet either the six or 12 month criteria for parental leave.
  • If you’re a teacher employed by multiple boards of trustees during the eligibility period, your employment by each board of trustees is treated as one employment for the purposes of working out whether you meet either the six or 12 month criteria for parental leave. You will still need to meet the hours of work criteria.

Paid parental leave (primary carer leave and parental leave payments)

Primary carer leave and parental leave payments enable the birth mother to look after a newborn baby and recover from giving birth. If the birth mother is eligible for these, then she will remain eligible regardless of whether the baby unfortunately dies before or after the birth.

The birth mother would still be eligible for 26 weeks of parental leave payments if she:

  • meets the relevant eligibility work test as an employee or self-employed person
  • has not transferred the entitlement to parental leave payments
  • has not returned to work since her payment period begins (this begins when she starts parental leave or when she gives birth, whichever is earlier).

This allows the birth mother to take time away from work to attend to her health and wellbeing.

Paid parental leave can be transferred to a spouse or partner if they have (or intend to have) primary responsibility for the day-to-day care of the child and are eligible. However, it cannot be transferred if the mother or spouse/partner no longer have care of the child, for example, after the death of the child or removal from care. If it has been transferred prior to the loss of care, then it ends on the date of the loss of care.

Unpaid extended leave

The entitlement to extended leave requires an employee to care for a child. This eligibility requirement is no longer met if the child they are caring for or intend to care for unfortunately dies. In this case the employee would need to discuss their circumstances with their employer in good faith.

The employer and employee could still agree to bereavement leave or other contractual time off. If the employee returns to work before the date they first gave to their employer, they would still need to give 21 days’ notice.

Template letter to an employer in cases of stillbirth or death of a child [DOCX, 22 KB]

In surrogacy situations, both the birth mother and the new primary caregiver are fully entitled to paid parental leave (if they meet the eligibility criteria). The birth mother’s entitlement does not end when she hands over care of the child.

More eligibility information

Find out more about parental leave and pay entitlements.

Parental leave and payment eligibility table

Other links you might find useful

How helpful was this information?

Page last revised: 07 October 2022

Still haven't found what you're looking for?

Please note that this content will change over time and may be out of date.

® Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment

Top