WORKERS would pay a levy averaging $5.70 a week to fund a paid maternity leave scheme delivering mothers six months leave - under the first serious maternity-leave proposal put before the Federal Government.
A former senior public servant has drawn up plans for the $3.5 billion scheme that will be examined by the Productivity Commission inquiry into paid maternity leave tomorrow.
All employees would be levied 0.5 per cent of their wages to fund the scheme, which means the plan would cost someone on the average wage $5.70 a week.
A worker earning $100,000 a year would pay $10 a week. Employers would also be levied 0.5 per cent of their payroll to help fund the scheme.
Fathers as well as mothers would benefit from the scheme, gaining four weeks paid paternity leave after the birth of a child.
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