Maternity pay - Average weekly earnings.....

bobspan1

Hi all,
I would really appreciate some advice regarding the calculation of average weekly earnings and maternity pay for my wife.
Her job entails working shifts and as such she gets a 25% shift premium paid on top of her wages, but at present the company has seconded her to a position with more responsibility working normal office hours and due to the nature of the job she did not loose the shift premium, in lieu of them paying her extra salary.
The problem is her wages are still split as salary and shift premium so when they calculate her average weekly earnings, will they include the extra for the shift premium or not.
The HMRC site states that earnings include ' all earnings within the period, including money earned outside the period such as holiday pay, overtime, bonuses and any lump sum for arrears of pay' and also payments which are subject to class 1 national insurance contributions.

Shift premium payments are not mentioned anywhere but if she had a bonus it seems this would be included.

Can anyone clarify this for us.

Many thanks
Bob

bobspan1

Is there no one out there that can help with maternity pay calculations? or does anyone know if there is somewhere else i can post this?

Many thanks
Bob

stazi

As HMRC have said- earnings include ' all earnings.......' but remember- there is a maximum of SMP payable weekly.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/paye/employees/statutory-pay/smp-overview.htm#1