{"id":482948,"date":"2026-06-18T03:17:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/482948\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T03:17:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:17:15","slug":"paid-parental-leave-rate-to-increase-from-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/482948\/","title":{"rendered":"Paid parental leave rate to increase from July"},"content":{"rendered":"

The amount paid to parents of new-borns taking time off from work to care for their children will increase from July 1.<\/p>\n

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden<\/a> announced the maximum weekly paid parental leave rate would go up from $788.66 to $811.05 per week in line with movement in average weekly earnings. <\/p>\n

The increase was a legislated annual increase under the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987, adjusted annually to account for increases to average ordinary time weekly earnings. <\/p>\n

The minimum paid parental leave rate for self-employed people would also increase to $239.50 per week from $235 to reflect the increase to the minimum wage<\/a> which took effect earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Van Velden said the first weeks after a baby was born were “crucial for parents being able to bond with their child”. <\/p>\n

\"Brooke<\/p>\n

Brooke van Velden. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“Eligible parents can count on this valuable financial support for up to 26 weeks when taking leave from their job to care for their new child,” she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also recognise that this time will look different depending on a person\u2019s circumstances, and our paid parental leave scheme accounts for that. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this most often applies to parents with a newborn, it also applies to those who have suffered miscarriage or stillbirth to allow time away for rest and recovery in these difficult situations. <\/p>\n

She said support was also available to those who have adopted, or had a child born through surrogacy.<\/p>\n

“As an expectant mother myself, I give my congratulations to every Kiwi awaiting the arrival of their baby and wish them a speedy recovery and special time with their baby in the months ahead.\u201d <\/p>\n

For more information about parental leave including eligibility, payments and returning to work visit the Employment New Zealand website. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The amount paid to parents of new-borns taking time off from work to care for their children will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[28921,42,43,135,40,38,41,39,2248],"class_list":["post-482948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-act-party","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}