Maternity leave:the numbers

So how would the new maternity leave scheme work out in practice?

A glance at the circumstances of two women, that the commission gave as examples, should help us to answer that question.

The first, “Laura” is a working mother with a part time job. She earns $400 a week.

Laura is entitled to – and taks – 18 weeks leave. And she gets $543.78 a week, in that time, under the proposed scheme.

That is about $9,788, altogether.

But, by taking this leave, Laura misses out on the new maternity allowance, that would replace the present baby bonus and some other small benefits.

Once her superannuation payments are taken into account, though, Laura would get a total of about $10,436 gross, for that 18 week period.

So Laura would be $3,037 better off than she would have received, without the new scheme.

Roberta’s circumstances are quite different. She chooses to leave her $40,000 a year job, to become a full time mum.

Roberta will get a $5,000 maternity allowance and $654 in family tax benefits, a total of $5,654 for the 18 week period, after the birth of her child.

Where the father is eligible for the full two weeks paternity leave, and takes it, he would receive a gross payment of 1,088 from the government.

The commission says the maximum combined benefits, for a family taking advantage of the proposed scheme, would be $11,854,