Advanced options
What The Paternity Pay Calculator Works Out
- Weekly rate: the lower of the standard statutory rate (GBP 194.32 a week from April 2026) and 90% of your average weekly earnings. Monthly pay is converted with x 12 / 52, so anyone earning more than about GBP 936 a month gets the flat GBP 194.32. Unlike maternity pay there is no six-week 90% phase.
- Total for 2 weeks: the weekly rate multiplied by the weeks taken, GBP 388.64 for the full two weeks at the standard rate. Since 2024 the two weeks can be taken as two separate one-week blocks any time in the 52 weeks after birth or adoption, with 28 days' notice for each.
- Vs full pay: what you would normally earn over the same weeks minus the statutory pay. For most full-time workers this makes paternity pay a substantial pay cut, so check your contract first; many employers pay enhanced paternity pay at full salary.
- Eligibility: 26 weeks of continuous service by the end of the 15th week before the due date, average earnings at or above the lower earnings limit, and being the father, adopter or partner responsible for the child's upbringing.
- Weeks of paternity leave (advanced): switch between one week and two. The basic cards update to match.
- Weeks employer pays at full pay (advanced): an employer top-up replaces the statutory rate in the weeks it covers, so the "with employer top-up" card shows what you actually receive.
- Shared Parental Leave (advanced): a separate scheme letting parents split up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay between them, paid at the same statutory weekly rate. Every week you take comes off the mother's maternity entitlement, and any weeks beyond the shared 37 paid weeks are unpaid.
- Annual leave added on (advanced): days of holiday tacked onto the leave at full pay (weekly pay divided by working days), a common way to stretch time at home without the statutory pay cut.
- Total time off and shortfall (advanced): everything added together, gross, against normal pay for the same period and the percentage of normal pay you keep. Tax and National Insurance are deducted as usual.
Source and further reading: GOV.UK: paternity pay and leave.