Are employees entitled to be paid during additional paternity leave?
If the child’s mother, or the main adopter in an adoption situation, ends his or her period of maternity or adoption leave before using the maximum entitlement to 39 weeks’ statutory maternity pay, statutory maternity allowance or statutory adoption pay, the employee taking additional paternity leave is entitled to be paid for the remainder of the 39-week period, assuming that he or she has average earnings of at least the lower earnings limit for national insurance purposes. In effect, the couple are paid for 39 weeks between them. Additional paternity leave pay is paid at the statutory maternity pay rate, or 90% of the employee’s earnings, if this is less than the statutory rate. Employers can provide for contractual paternity pay on more generous terms than the statutory minimum. The right to additional paternity leave and pay applies only to fathers or partners of mothers of children with an expected week of birth beginning on or after 3 April 2011 (or in an adoption situation, whe
