How Long Is Maternity Leave in Australia: Paid and Unpaid Entitlements

Maternity leave in Australia is built from three layers stacked together. The government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme currently gives eligible parents 24 weeks (120 days) of pay at the national minimum wage for children born or adopted between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026, rising to 26 weeks (130 days) from 1 July 2026.¹ On top of that, the National Employment Standards give eligible employees up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave, with the right to request another 12 months, for a possible 24 months away from work.² Anything your employer offers as its own paid parental leave sits on top of both.

How long your own maternity leave ends up being depends on which of those layers you use, how much unpaid time you can afford, and what your employer’s policy adds.

Government Paid Parental Leave: 24 Weeks Now, 26 Weeks From July 2026

Paid Parental Leave (PPL) pays at the national minimum wage, which from 1 July 2025 is $948 per week before tax.³ The scheme is in the middle of a staged increase:

1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025: 110 days (22 weeks)
1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026: 120 days (24 weeks)
1 July 2026 onward: 130 days (26 weeks)

The date that decides your entitlement is when the child is born or adopted, not when you apply.¹ A baby born on 30 June 2026 falls under the 120-day entitlement; a baby born the next day qualifies for 130 days.

To get PPL, you need to meet three tests. The residency requirement is that you are an Australian resident and the primary carer of the child. The income test for the 2024–25 financial year is an individual adjusted taxable income of $180,007 or less; if you exceed that, you can still qualify through a family income test of $373,094 or less combined with your partner.⁴ The work test requires that you worked during a qualifying period of at least 295 consecutive days (roughly 10 months) in the lead-up to the birth or adoption, and clocked at least 330 hours across that period.⁵

How Sharing Affects How Long One Parent Is Paid

PPL days aren’t tied to one parent. You can approve sharing some or all of your days with the other parent, provided each parent individually meets the eligibility rules. Some days are reserved for each parent and can’t be transferred, so to receive the full family entitlement both parents need to be eligible and both need to claim. If only one parent is eligible, the reserved-day limit still applies and the family receives fewer total days than if both claimed.⁶

Parents can also take up to 20 PPL days at the same time, which shortens the total stretch of paid days available to one parent alone but puts two people at home together in the early weeks.⁶

Unpaid Parental Leave: 12 Months, With the Right to Request Another 12

Under the National Employment Standards, eligible employees can take up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave and request an additional 12 months, bringing the total to as much as 24 months away from work.² The leave must be connected to a birth or adoption, and you must have responsibility for the care of the child.

To qualify, non-casual employees need at least 12 months of continuous service with their employer before the expected date of birth or adoption.⁷ Casual employees can also qualify if they have been employed on a regular and systematic basis for at least 12 months and would have a reasonable expectation of continuing employment if not for the birth or adoption.⁸

You must give your employer at least 10 weeks’ written notice before your leave starts. If that’s not practicable because the baby arrives early, notify your employer as soon as possible, even if the leave has already begun.⁷

Flexible Days Within the Unpaid Allowance

Not all of the unpaid leave needs to be a single continuous block. The Fair Work Act allows up to 30 days of flexible unpaid parental leave, taken one day at a time or in shorter blocks within 24 months of the birth or adoption. Flexible days need at least four weeks’ notice before each day or block.⁷ That’s useful for easing back into work gradually or handling appointments without spending continuous leave.

Employer-Paid Leave on Top

Many employers offer their own paid parental leave in addition to the government scheme. There is no standard amount. Some workplaces provide a few weeks at full pay, others offer several months, and some provide nothing beyond the government entitlement. Your employment contract, enterprise agreement, or applicable modern award will spell out what you’re offered.

In most cases you can receive employer-paid parental leave and government PPL at the same time or back to back. The government payment doesn’t reduce because your employer also pays you. If your employer offers 12 weeks of paid leave and you receive the full government entitlement of 24 weeks (rising to 26 weeks from July 2026), you effectively have 36 to 38 weeks of paid time off before unpaid leave begins.

Putting the Layers Together

For a parent giving birth in the 2025–26 year who takes all their government PPL themselves and then continues on unpaid leave, the maximum stretch away from work looks like this: 24 weeks of PPL at minimum wage, followed by unpaid leave up to a combined total of 12 months, then an additional 12 months if requested and approved. Any employer-paid parental leave sits inside or alongside that window rather than extending the 24-month legal ceiling on unpaid leave.

From 1 July 2026, the paid portion moves to 26 weeks. The unpaid entitlement doesn’t change with it.

If the Baby Is Stillborn or Dies

The entitlement to unpaid parental leave doesn’t disappear if a baby is stillborn or dies within the first 24 months of life. The employee is still entitled to up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave, and the employer cannot cancel this leave or call the employee back to work during it. An employee who wants to return early can cancel the leave with written notice; once leave has started, at least four weeks’ written notice is required unless the employer agrees to an earlier date. Where an employer provides its own paid parental leave, it cannot refuse or cancel that leave because of a stillbirth or death of a child born on or after 7 November 2025.⁹

1
Services Australia. About Parental Leave Pay Payments
2
Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII). Fair Work Act 2009 – Sect 70 Entitlement to Unpaid Parental Leave
3
Fair Work Ombudsman. Minimum Wages
4
Services Australia. Meeting the Income Test for Parental Leave Pay
5
Paid Parental Leave Guide. 2.2.2 Work Test for PLP
6
Services Australia. Sharing Your Parental Leave Pay
7
Fair Work Commission. Fair Work Act 2009 – Division 5 Parental Leave
8
Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII). Fair Work Act 2009 – Sect 67 General Rule
9
Fair Work Ombudsman. Stillbirth, Premature Birth or Death of a Child