Federal Budget- Paid Parental Leave
Good news for new parents with an income less than $150,000. Parents will eligible to receive taxable payments from their employer at the weekly rate of the Federal Minimum Wage- currently $543.78 for a continuous period of up to 18 weeks. The 18 weeks may be shared between a mother and a father and will provide gives parents with time, flexibility and financial support to focus on their babies and family life.
But don’t start planning your family just yet, paid parental leave won’t be available until after January 2011.
This sounds great for new families doesn’t it? But compare with some 150+ countries worldwide who already offer paid maternity leave which includes Mongolia, Botswana and Myanmar. Working parents in Britain are entitled to 39 weeks’ paid leave, 50 weeks in Canada and 16 months in Sweden.
Personally I am satisfied to know that my own children will have paid parental leave available to them in the future, but I would be ecstatic if Australia were to catch up to the global level of parental leave.
What do you think about this? Will it stop you from planning your family until 2011? Or will the minimum wage be enough for your household to survive on?
Ray
May 21st, 2009 | 3 Comments »
3 Responses to “Federal Budget- Paid Parental Leave”
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May 21st, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Good to see a local company actually putting their opinions forth, big kudos to Companion!
We’re just about to have our first child, due end of August, and my wife is taking 6 months leave only…. Looking at the above information I wonder if it’s too late to emigrate to Sweden!
In regard to the minimum wage question, well currently our combined income is under the $150,000 and once my wife takes her leave we’ll be losing another 40k so anything would actually be helpful when it comes to paying the mortgage and bills..fortunately we no longer have a credit card to worry about.
May 21st, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Thanks Mathew,
As you say anything is better than nothing, when it comes to managing a reduction in household income. And good on you for keeping clear of credit card debt, which can be a real killer.
There are other ways that could make things more manageable while one wage earner is not in “paid” employment – like locking in some or all of your mortgage at a fixed rate so you have certainty while your wife is on leave. Depending on individual circumstances, moving your loan to “Interest Only” for the period of matwrnity leave can also reduce pressure on the family budget – at a time when there are a whole bunch of new expenses to have to deal with.
These are the sort of things that our branch staff discuss with our members when they conduct a financial “health check”- for free!
Hope all goes well for you and your wife come August, and I hope you get to access the paid leave provisions when number 2 come around, and 3, and……
Kind Regards
Ray
June 11th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
[...] Government was going to approve the proposed changes to parental leave, with a link to their blog post on the subject. I replied with a comment on the article itself and within minutes I had a number of tweets and a [...]