# Parental Leave - How Broken Leave is Deducted from Salary



## valhal (10 May 2015)

I'm currently taking parental leave so that I can work a four-day week for a year to spend more time with my kids. My salary varies from month to month and when I queried this with Payroll, I was told that parental leave is deducted by the number of Fridays in the month.

Is this the usual way that parental leave is calculated? I don't have any confidence in getting useful answers from the payroll office in my organisation and I could not find any information on how broken parental leave is normally deducted from payroll online. I would be grateful if anyone either knows the answer, or knows where I can find information on this.

I would prefer to receive a constant amount each month if possible.

Thanks.


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## huskerdu (10 May 2015)

I don't think we have enough information to answer your query.
You say that salary varies from month to month. Why ? Are you paid by the hour/day and only get paid for the hours/days worked.

If you are paid the same salary, then moving to working 80% of the time, you should get a cut in your gross salary of 20%.

If you are paid for the days worked, then this will continue, but you will work less days, so you will get paid for 4 less days in a month with 4 Fridays, and 5 less days in a month with 5 Fridays.


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## valhal (10 May 2015)

Thanks for the reply huskerdu. I wasn't clear about my working hours - I work 9am to 5pm Monday to Thursday and take parental leave on Fridays so I do not currently work on Fridays. Before parental leave, I worked 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday and my salary was exactly the same amount every month. Since taking parental leave, my salary is a different amount every month. It is not two amounts as might be expected with 4 or 5 Fridays - it's never the same amount. I queried this with Payroll and I was told it was because it depends how many Fridays there are in a month (for example, at Christmas there were three Fridays in the month when you take account of public holidays). 

It sounds like my parental leave is being deducted as if I were paid for the days worked. I'd like to know if this is incorrect if I am paid a monthly salary and am I within my rights to request that a percentage be deducted rather than the days deducted? It's disconcerting to be paid a different amount every month and to not feel confident that it's correct.


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## Purple (11 May 2015)

When you look at the number of paid Fridays in each month doe the deductions make sense.
You are taking more days off in some months than in others. It stands to reason that your pay would be adjusted accordingly. How else do you think it should be calculated?
As you are fortunate to have an employer who is willing to accommodate your wish to split your parental leave why do you think they will not answer your questions about how the days are deducted from your salary?


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## mathepac (11 May 2015)

+1 with Purple. I makes perfect sense to me. You work a variable number of days in a month, you get paid varying amounts.  Being paid a monthly salary rather than an hourly / daily rate, it may come as a shock to you that each day / hour has a cost. Your employment contract will have a number of hours per week where you must be present at work and from this you can get a daily / hourly rate. This will enable you to test the calculations your payroll office makes.


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## Leo (11 May 2015)

If you only work 4 out of 5 days, your entitlement to full pay for public holidays is affected as well. So I'm guessing that on months with a public holiday, your pay is down a little also?


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## Sunny (12 May 2015)

Purple said:


> When you look at the number of paid Fridays in each month doe the deductions make sense.
> You are taking more days off in some months than in others. It stands to reason that your pay would be adjusted accordingly. How else do you think it should be calculated?
> As you are fortunate to have an employer who is willing to accommodate your wish to split your parental leave why do you think they will not answer your questions about how the days are deducted from your salary?


 
How does that make sense? She is a salary employee. It shouldn't change every month depending on the number of Fridays in a month. Not like people get a bigger salary on months when they might have to work 5 Fridays or if a month has 31 days instead of 30.  Monthly basic Salary should be Annual Salary / 12. If you are taking a parental leave day, every week, they should adjust your salary by 20%. There shouldn't be fluctuations on basic salary on a monthly basis.


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## Purple (12 May 2015)

Sunny said:


> How does that make sense? She is a salary employee. It shouldn't change every month depending on the number of Fridays in a month. Not like people get a bigger salary on months when they might have to work 5 Fridays or if a month has 31 days instead of 30.  Monthly basic Salary should be Annual Salary / 12. If you are taking a parental leave day, every week, they should adjust your salary by 20%. There shouldn't be fluctuations on basic salary on a monthly basis.


It will work out as a 20% reduction over the year but in some months she takes 5 Fridays off and in others she takes 4. That could explain the difference but I don't see what the issue is as it all works out the same over the year.


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## valhal (12 May 2015)

The difference is that we struggle as a family to make it to the end of the month every month even though I moved jobs to earn more. When my salary is less than usual, my heart sinks and I'm maths phobic so not understanding why increases my anxiety. Having thought about all this and gone back through a few payslips, I think the ultimate answer is that I have to take responsibility and pay attention to my payslip and understand it and check it every month rather than assume/hope/worry that it's correct. Thanks for the help - I really appreciate it.


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## Leper (12 May 2015)

Having worked in payroll of several companies I can inform you that Parental Leave deductions are easy-peasy for any wages clerk.  If you company allows you Parental Leave on a long term basis @ a specific number of hours per week, it is easy to plan the total number of Parental Leave hours to be deducted over the entire time.  This time can easily be deducted evenly over the entire period too.  Some people opt not to take Parental Leave on weeks of Bank Holidays, holidays etc. So you need to think out the whole procedure and keep to it.

However, it needs some notice and planning. I don't know if your pay periods are weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, calendar monthly etc.  But, no matter, calculations are not difficult.  But, you would need to liaise with your payroll people and well in advance. From my experience Parental Leave planning is generally put on the long finger and on most occasions the employee is back in work before all the implications of Parental Leave are thought out.  I can see little reason why equal deductions per pay period should not be easy to apply.


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## huskerdu (13 May 2015)

Leo said:


> If you only work 4 out of 5 days, your entitlement to full pay for public holidays is affected as well. So I'm guessing that on months with a public holiday, your pay is down a little also?



This is not true. According to Citizensinformation, she is entitled to full pay for public holidays

"Your entitlement to public holidays is set out in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Most employees are entitled to paid leave on public holidays. One exception is part-time employees who have not worked for their employer at least 40 hours in total in the 5 weeks before the public holiday.

Employees who qualify will be entitled to one of the following:

- A paid day off on the public holiday
- An additional day of annual leave
- An additional day’s pay
- A paid day off within a month of the public holiday "
[broken link removed]


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## Purple (14 May 2015)

huskerdu said:


> This is not true. According to Citizensinformation, she is entitled to full pay for public holidays
> 
> "Your entitlement to public holidays is set out in the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Most employees are entitled to paid leave on public holidays. One exception is part-time employees who have not worked for their employer at least 40 hours in total in the 5 weeks before the public holiday.
> 
> ...



True.
Specific details here.


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## Leo (14 May 2015)

Interesting, thanks for that.


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