The two rates inside the 39 weeks
GOV.UK tells employers to pay 90 percent of the employee's average weekly earnings for the first 6 weeks. For the next 33 weeks, if the employee takes the full 39, the rate is the lower of the standard weekly rate and 90 percent of average weekly earnings. For 2026-27 the standard weekly rate on the employer rates and thresholds page is £194.32. A person whose 90 percent is already below £194.32 stays on 90 percent for the whole period. A person whose 90 percent is above £194.32 drops to £194.32 after week 6.
Average weekly earnings of £400 produce a 90 percent week of £360. That is the first 6 weeks. The later weeks are £194.32, because 90 percent of £400 is well above the standard rate. Six weeks at £360 is £2,160. Thirty-three weeks at £194.32 is £6,412.56. The 39-week total is £8,572.56. That is the default result on the calculator. Average weekly earnings of £200 produce £180 for every week, because 90 percent never reaches £194.32. Thirty-nine weeks at £180 is £7,020.
Weeks are whole weeks, and they stop at 39. Typing more than 39 does not increase the statutory total. Typing fewer weeks pays the earnings-related rate first. A leave of 4 weeks is four weeks at 90 percent and no weeks at the later rate. The calculator does not spread the lower rate backwards.
The earnings test, and who is outside it
The lower earnings limit for National Insurance in 2026-27 is £129 a week. Statutory Maternity Pay uses that limit as the earnings test in the qualifying period. Average weekly earnings of £128.99 produce a statutory payment of nothing on this page. The same is true if the eligible box is cleared, because the arithmetic is only applied when the person meets the employment and earnings conditions. The page does not compute the qualifying week from a due date. The employer still has to do that from the dates.
Contractual maternity pay can be more generous than the statutory floor. This total is the statutory amount only. It is not a second payment on top of a contract that already matches or exceeds it, and it is not a promise that every employer pays only the statutory rate. Tax and National Insurance can still be due on the payment. The calculator does not deduct them. The take-home calculator is a separate salary, not a maternity payslip.
Statutory paternity pay and statutory shared parental pay have their own rates and their own lengths. The £194.32 figure is the standard rate those payments often share, but this page does not calculate them. A person getting Statutory Maternity Pay is also outside statutory sick pay for that period. The sick-pay guide covers the 2026 sick-pay changes. Do not add the two weekly rates together for the same week.
What the employer recovers
Most employers recover 92 percent of the Statutory Maternity Pay they pay. A small employer recovers 109 percent. GOV.UK describes a small employer, for this recovery, as one whose Class 1 National Insurance in the previous tax year was £45,000 or less. On the £8,572.56 example, 92 percent is £7,886.76. The small-employer 109 percent of the £7,020 example is £7,651.80, and 109 percent of £8,572.56 is £9,344.09. The calculator shows the recovery that matches the box you tick.
Recovery is not the employee's money. It is how the employer claims the statutory payment back, usually through the PAYE bill. Adding it to the employee's 39-week total double-counts the same payment. The employee sees the maternity pay. The employer sees the pay plus, for a small employer, the extra compensation in the 109 percent. The page labels the recovery so the two amounts stay apart.
What the page will not decide
Average weekly earnings are the employer's calculation over the relevant period, not a salary divided by 52 unless that is how the employer has worked them out. A pay rise near the start of leave can change the average under the statutory rules. The HMRC statutory payments manual is the place for that detail. This guide uses the average you type. If the average is wrong, the 90 percent weeks are wrong with it.
The uprating of the standard rate does not always land on every week of a leave that straddles 6 April. The calculator applies £194.32 to every later week you count. If a leave started before the uprating, check the week the new rate applies rather than assuming the whole leave moves on one day. Eligibility also depends on continuous employment into the qualifying week and on notice to the employer. The checkbox is your confirmation of those conditions. It is not a search of a payroll record.
Put the two worked totals next to the recovery so the labels stay distinct. Earnings of £400 a week for the full 39 weeks pay the employee £8,572.56, and a standard employer recovers 92 percent of that, £7,886.76. Earnings of £200 a week pay the employee £7,020 for the full period, because every week stays at 90 percent, and a small employer recovers 109 percent, £7,651.80. Neither recovery figure is added to the employee's pay, and neither is a substitute for the employer's Class 1 National Insurance. The £45,000 test for small-employer relief is last year's Class 1 National Insurance, not this year's wage bill and not the employee's earnings. If you are not sure which side of that line the employer falls on, leave the small-employer box unticked and treat 92 percent as the ordinary recovery. The maternity calculator linked above is the same arithmetic. Change the earnings, the number of weeks, or the two checkboxes and the four result lines move together: the early week, the later week, the total, and the recovery.