Rachel SharpThe XpertHR survey of maternity and paternity pay arrangements at 263 organisations finds that more than half of employers offer enhancements above the statutory level of maternity pay. Larger organisations (those with 1,000+ employees) are more likely to offer enhanced pay than are smaller ones, and those in the public sector are twice as likely to do so as employers in the manufacturing and production sector.
Our report on maternity pay rates (subscription required) looks at:
• eligibility for enhanced maternity pay;
• approaches to enhancing maternity pay; and
• return-to-work bonuses.
A separate survey report on paternity pay (subscription required) looks at respondents’ policies on the new entitlement to additional paternity leave and pay that came into effect for fathers of children due on or after 3 April 2011. We find that almost three-quarters of employers will not be offering additional paternity pay above the statutory level.
XpertHR has now published an additional paternity leave and pay workflow (subscription required) giving employers step-by-step guidance on the procedure to follow when informed by an employee that he plans to take additional paternity leave in respect of his new baby.
Full results of the 2011 XpertHR maternity and paternity pay survey are available to subscribers to our XpertHR Benchmarking service, including details of:
• how employers deal with annual leave accrued during maternity leave;
• pension contributions; and
• treatment of bonuses during maternity leave.
Liz Morris of Working Families has written an XpertHR good practice guide on fathers. Working Families has published a survey of employers’ readiness for the changes to additional paternity leave and pay, which found that two-thirds of employers who have made policy changes plan to pay the statutory level of paternity pay during additional paternity leave. Four in 10 of the employers it surveyed had not yet updated their policies to reflect the new entitlement.
