Proposal for paid parental leave

Draft recommendations recently proposed for a new paid parental leave scheme are now available online.
The report, Paid Parental Leave: Support for Parents with Newborn Children, was released by the Productivity Commission on 29 September 2008.

The Commission's draft recommendations propose the introduction of a taxpayer-funded paid parental leave scheme that would:

• provide paid postnatal leave for a total of 18 weeks
• provide the minimum wage (currently $543.78) for each week of leave (subject to normal taxation)

All employees with a minimum of 12 continuous months with their employer would be eligible.

Businesses would be impacted by:

• acting as 'paymasters' for the scheme by paying their employee's parental leave entitlements. The government would reimburse the employer the wage portion through a credit to 'pay as you go' withholding payments to the ATO
• providing superannuation contributions of 9%

The draft report, including recommendations, fact sheets, proposed costings and all public submissions, is available on the Productivity Commission website.

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