The Maternity Benefit Act guarantees paid leave that most people round down to “12 weeks” from memory, but the actual entitlement depends on which child this is, and the difference is 14 weeks of pay either way. Here’s your total paid leave and the corresponding payout based on your average daily wage.
The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (as amended in 2017) provides 26 weeks of paid leave for the first or second child, of which up to 8 weeks may be taken before the expected delivery date. For the third child onwards, the entitlement drops to 12 weeks. Adoption of a child under 3 months of age, and commissioning mothers under surrogacy arrangements, are also entitled to 12 weeks. Pay is calculated at the average daily wage for the actual period of absence.
This applies to establishments with 10 or more employees, for women who have worked at least 80 days in the 12 months preceding the expected delivery date. Establishments with 50 or more employees must also provide creche facilities.
Employees covered under ESI receive maternity benefit through the ESI scheme rather than directly from the employer; this calculator estimates the employer-paid scenario, which applies to employees outside ESI coverage. Check your own eligibility with our ESI Calculator if you’re unsure which category you fall into.
It refers to days actually worked in the 12 months before the expected delivery date, check the exact interpretation with HR since edge cases can vary.
No, paternity leave isn’t governed by a central statute in the same way, it’s typically a company policy benefit with widely varying duration across employers.
Maternity leave is generally a separate entitlement from your Casual, Sick, or Earned leave balance, it shouldn’t be deducted from those. Our Leave Balance Calculator tracks the regular categories independently.
Since maternity pay is a real, if infrequent, payroll cost, our Workforce Cost Calculator is worth checking if you’re modelling total cost of a growing team with a meaningful share of women employees.