UK Maternity Pay Calculator 2026/27

Maternity pay in the UK is not one flat rate, it changes across your leave, starting higher, dropping to a standard rate, then stopping altogether if you take your full 52 weeks. This calculator works out exactly what you can expect to receive, week by week and month by month, based on your salary and your employer's maternity policy.

How to use the maternity pay calculator

Enter your current weekly salary and how many weeks of maternity leave you plan to take, up to the maximum of 52. Add the start date of your leave so we can give you a monthly breakdown, and select your employer's maternity policy: statutory pay only, an enhanced scheme with a set number of weeks of full pay before dropping to SMP, or an option for when you are not sure and want the statutory minimum as a baseline.

How the calculation works

Statutory Maternity Pay covers the first 39 weeks of your leave. The first 6 weeks are paid at 90% of your average weekly earnings, with no cap, so higher earners genuinely get 90% of their normal pay during this period. The remaining 33 weeks are paid at the lower of the flat statutory rate, £187.18 a week, or 90% of your earnings, which means most people move onto the flat rate once their initial 6 weeks are over. Any weeks beyond 39, up to the 52-week maximum, are unpaid unless your employer's scheme covers them. Our take-home pay calculator and income tax calculator can help you see what any of these weekly figures look like after tax.

Worked example

Take an employee earning £500 a week, taking the full 52 weeks of maternity leave, on a statutory-only maternity policy.

The first 6 weeks are paid at 90% of £500, which is £450 a week, totalling £2,700. For the next 33 weeks, the standard SMP rate of £187.18 a week applies, since 90% of £500 is higher than the flat rate, giving another £6,176.94. That brings the total paid maternity pay across 39 weeks to £8,876.94. The remaining 13 weeks, taking the total to the full 52-week entitlement, are unpaid, unless the employer chooses to pay more.

Common mistakes when estimating maternity pay

A common mistake is assuming SMP continues at 90% of earnings for the whole 39 weeks. In reality, the 90% rate only applies for the first 6 weeks, after which the flat rate usually takes over for higher earners, since it is nearly always lower than 90% of their salary once it exceeds around £208 a week. Another mistake is forgetting that maternity leave and maternity pay are different lengths, you can take up to 52 weeks of leave, but only 39 of those weeks are paid under the statutory scheme.

Self-employed mothers sometimes assume they are simply not entitled to anything, when in fact Maternity Allowance, claimed through the Department for Work and Pensions rather than an employer, pays a similar weekly rate for up to 39 weeks. Our self-employed tax calculator and self-employed tax guide can help you plan your finances around a Maternity Allowance claim instead of SMP. If you are also managing a period of sickness alongside pregnancy, our sick pay calculator and UK sick pay guide cover how Statutory Sick Pay works separately from maternity pay.

Related calculators

If you are still expecting, our pregnancy due date calculator and pregnancy weeks calculator can help you plan exactly when your qualifying week and maternity leave should start. Once you know your maternity pay figure, our take-home pay calculator and income tax calculator can show the tax and National Insurance impact in more detail.