It's a common complaint, often heard in NHS staff rooms and on forums, that NHS maternity pay is poor compared to the private sector. There's some truth to it, but it's also misleading, because "the private sector" isn't one thing.
To see your own NHS figures rather than averages, use the NHS Maternity Pay Calculator.
Most "NHS vs private sector" debates go wrong because they compare the NHS to a single imagined private employer. In reality there are three very different things being compared:
Whether NHS maternity pay looks good or bad depends entirely on which of these you hold it against.
The legal minimum, Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), is what an employer with no enhanced scheme of their own provides. For 2026/27 it's 6 weeks at 90% of your average weekly earnings, followed by up to 33 weeks at the flat rate of £194.32 per week (or 90% of your earnings if that's lower), then nothing for the remaining weeks. That's 39 weeks of pay, with no period of full pay at all.
This is the baseline a large number of private sector workers actually receive, because many employers, particularly smaller ones, offer exactly the statutory minimum and nothing more. It's the honest yardstick for whether "NHS maternity pay is good or not."
Measured against that statutory floor, the NHS occupational scheme is clearly more generous. For staff with 12 months' continuous NHS service, it provides 8 weeks at full pay, 18 weeks at half pay plus SMP, then 13 weeks of SMP, then unpaid leave.
The key difference is the block of full and half pay at the start; the statutory scheme has no full-pay period whatsoever. So in the early months, when a new baby is most expensive, an NHS worker on the occupational scheme receives substantially more than someone on statutory-only pay.
Anyone comparing the NHS to "the private sector" and picturing a typical private employer offering the legal minimum is, in fact, comparing it to something less generous than the NHS.
Where the complaint has real force is at the top end. Some private employers, particularly in law, finance, consulting and large tech firms, offer enhanced maternity packages that exceed the NHS scheme, for example several months of full pay rather than the NHS's 8 weeks. Against those specific employers, NHS maternity pay genuinely is less generous, and that's a fair point for someone weighing up a move.
But these schemes are the exception, not the private sector norm. They tend to cluster in high-paying, competitive industries that use enhanced parental leave to attract and retain staff. They're not representative of "the private sector" as a whole, and they're not what most people leaving the NHS would actually move onto.
The accurate statement isn't "NHS maternity pay is worse than the private sector" — it's "NHS maternity pay is worse than the most generous private employers, and better than the typical one."
Headline maternity pay isn't the whole picture, and the bit that gets left out consistently favours the NHS: the pension.
Throughout your paid NHS maternity leave, your pension continues to build on your full, notional pay, even while you're personally paying lower contributions on your reduced phase pay.
On top of that, your employer keeps contributing 23.7% of your pensionable pay in England and Wales (22.5% in Scotland, 23.2% in Northern Ireland) the whole time. Most private sector employers contribute a small fraction of that, often in the region of 3% to 8%, and a private defined-contribution pension carries investment risk the NHS scheme doesn't.
So even where a private employer matches or slightly beats the NHS on headline maternity pay, the NHS often wins on total reward once the pension is counted, because your retirement benefits keep accruing on full pay during leave and the employer contribution is exceptionally high. We explain how that works in detail in our NHS Maternity Pay and Your Pension guide.
The fair verdict: NHS maternity pay is better than the statutory minimum, better than many private employers who offer only that minimum, and a strong total-reward package once the pension is included — but it isn't as generous on headline pay as the best-paying City and tech firms.
Whether it feels "good" depends heavily on what you're comparing it to, and on whether you're looking only at the monthly figure or at the full package including pension.
If you've seen the comparison made with current rates and want to check it's up to date, our NHS Maternity Pay 2026/27: What's Changed guide covers this year's figures.
Yes. For staff with 12 months' continuous NHS service, the NHS occupational scheme adds a period of full and half pay at the start that the statutory minimum doesn't include, so it's more generous than statutory-only pay, especially in the early months.
Only compared to the most generous private employers. Some firms in law, finance and tech offer more, but many private employers offer only the statutory minimum, which is less than the NHS scheme. So it's better than the typical private employer and worse than the best-paying ones.
The statutory minimum is 6 weeks at 90% of earnings, then up to 33 weeks at £194.32 (2026/27), with no full pay. The NHS scheme adds 8 weeks full pay and 18 weeks half pay plus SMP on top, so it pays considerably more in the early phase.
Often, yes. Your NHS pension keeps building on full notional pay during leave, and the employer contributes 23.7% in England and Wales — far more than typical private employers — so on total reward the NHS frequently comes out ahead even when headline pay looks similar.