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Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987

Payment for parental leave - Interpretation

71CBA: Calculation of self-employed person’s average weekly income from work

You could also call this:

“How to work out your weekly pay when you're self-employed”

When you’re self-employed and want to figure out your average weekly income from work, you have two options. You can choose to calculate it based on either a 12-month period or a 6-month period.

If you pick the 12-month option, you’ll take your net income from self-employment over the last 12 months and divide it by 52. This gives you your average weekly income.

If you choose the 6-month option, you’ll take your net income from self-employment over the last 6 months and divide it by 26. This also gives you your average weekly income.

The 12 months or 6 months you use for this calculation end just before:

  • The day your child is expected to be born (if you or your partner are having a baby), or
  • The day you or your partner start being the main caregiver for a child (in other situations)

Sometimes, you might not have been working for some weeks during this period. If that’s the case, you need to reduce the number you divide by (52 or 26) by the number of full weeks you weren’t working. But this only applies in certain situations that are described in another part of the law.

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This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6810672.

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Part 7A Payment for parental leave
Interpretation

71CBACalculation of self-employed person’s average weekly income from work

  1. An eligible self-employed person must elect whether to determine their average weekly income from work over a 12-month period or over a 6-month period.

  2. An eligible self-employed person’s average weekly income from work over a 12-month period is one fifty-second of that person’s net income from self-employment over the 12 months immediately preceding—

  3. the expected date of delivery of the child (in the case of a child to be born to the self-employed person or to the self-employed person’s spouse or partner); or
    1. the first date on which either the self-employed person or the self-employed person’s spouse or partner becomes the primary carer in respect of the child (in any other case).

      1. An eligible self-employed person’s average weekly income from work over a 6-month period is one twenty-sixth of that person’s net income from self-employment over the 6 months immediately preceding—

      2. the expected date of delivery of the child (in the case of a child to be born to the self-employed person or to the self-employed person’s spouse or partner); or
        1. the first date on which either the self-employed person or the self-employed person’s spouse or partner becomes the primary carer in respect of the child (in any other case).

          1. The divisor of 52 in subsection (2) and the divisor of 26 in subsection (3) must be reduced by the number of complete weeks during which the eligible self-employed person was not working in a circumstance described in section 71CB(2).

          Notes
          • Section 71CBA: inserted, on , by section 55 of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 8).