What happens to pay during maternity leave?
During maternity leave (both ordinary and additional maternity leave), the employee’s contract of employment continues, but she is not entitled to her wages or salary. She will instead be entitled to statutory maternity pay (SMP) if she meets the qualifying conditions relating to the length of time since she joined the company and the level of national insurance she has paid. Shift pay, overtime, call-out and attendance allowances all count as ‘wages or salary’ and can be withheld during maternity leave. Car allowances and bonuses are more complicated. The rules about pay will stay the same under the new law. However, you might choose to offer enhanced maternity pay (over and above statutory), for example, to attract and retain women in a competitive market. You are not legally obliged to offer any extra maternity pay and the fact that you offer a sick pay scheme that is more generous than the statutory sick pay scheme does not mean that you have to do the same with maternity pay.
