This week, we’ve taken the decision to improve Umega’s parental pay policy for both maternity and paternity pay. Becoming a parent is one of the most important times in anyone’s life and we want to support our people in the right way.

What is Parental Pay?

Parental pay, or maternity pay for mothers and paternity pay for fathers, is the amount a business pays employees who take time off work when they have a baby. Until now, Umega only paid statutory parental pay which is the minimum a company must legally offer.

Why have we reviewed this policy?

Upgrading Umega’s maternity and paternity pay is something that we have always wanted to do. Supporting employees in their lives outside of the office is an important part of being a great place to work. We already provide all of our employees with significantly improved sick pay – Umega pays as much as 4 weeks a year in sick pay for each employee rather than just the statutory 3 days – as well as private healthcare via Vitality Health.

Umega’s new parental pay policy

We now pay 6 weeks full salary, followed by 6 weeks half salary, followed by 14 weeks at 25% salary (if higher than statutory). We have taken our lead from the team at CharlieHR in a blog they published recently on why they have taken a similar decision.

There is more we can do

We discuss and listen to our team about how Umega should continue evolving as we work towards becoming one of the best small businesses to work for in the world. Our new parental pay policy is a small step on the road but it feels like a significant one. Attracting the right people to join Umega and creating the conditions for them to thrive is key to achieving our mission of smashing negative stereotypes of traditional business. We just got another small step closer.