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Set up and manage an Occupational Paternity Pay (OPP) scheme
Set up and manage an Occupational Paternity Pay (OPP) scheme
Rebecca Russell avatar
Written by Rebecca Russell
Updated over a week ago

Occupational paternity pay (OPP) allows an employer to give their employees more than just the minimum statutory paternity pay (SPP) rate. It may also be called enhanced, company, or top-up pay.

Occupational paternity pay is usually inclusive of statutory pay (minimum government entitlement). The amount an employee is due depends on the employee's contract or company policies.

Feature Overview

✅ You can set up your OPP scheme at a company level and this will automatically apply to any employee who is eligible for OPP.

✅ OPP can be displayed separately to the statutory paternity pay from the statutory paternity pay on the payslip. Providing the employee with a clearer breakdown of their earnings.

✅ Pay OPP based on a percentage of the employee's base pay or a set weekly amount.

❌ You must choose to pay either a percentage of base pay or a fixed weekly amount. It's not possible to mix two methods of OPP.

❌ You can't set up multiple occupational paternity pay schemes at a company level. Any variations can be adjusted at an individual employee level though.

Set up a company Occupational Paternity Pay (OPP) scheme

  1. From the left, choose Company settings, then Payroll set-up.

  2. Under the Leaves section, click Edit occupational leaves.

  3. Under the Occupational Paternity Pay (OPP) section, select Yes.

  4. In the How many weeks do employees have to work to be eligible for OPP field, enter the number of weeks they must work at your company before they are entitled to OPP.

  5. How would you like the payment to be calculated:

    • Percentage of base pay: The days or weeks of statutory paternity leave are topped up to a percentage of the employee's base pay.

    • Fixed weekly amount: An additional amount to be paid on top of the employee's statutory paternity pay.

  6. How to display OPP and SPP payments on payslip:

    • Combine OPP and SPP: One line for paternity leave.

    • Separate OPP and SPP: SPP and OPP are displayed on two lines on the payslip. This is useful for the employee to see a breakdown of their earnings.

  7. Under the First period section, enter the number of weeks, and the amount of OPP for each week.

  8. If necessary, to add a further level of OPP, click Add second period.

    For example:

    ⦁ First period: 2 weeks at 100% pay

    ⦁ Second period: 1 week at 75% pay

  9. Click Save.

Add occupational paternity pay for an employee

If you haven't already set up the period of paternity leave, please refer to this Help Centre article. Then return to this article to set up any occupational paternity pay.

  1. From the employee's record, click the Leaves tab.

  2. Under the Parental leave section, choose Paternity leave.

  3. Next to the period of paternity leave, click the Actions (...) button, then Edit.

  4. Toggle on the Apply OPP for this employee.

  5. The OPP settings applied at a company level appear underneath.

    If you need to adjust the settings for this employee, toggle on the Edit parameters option, then edit the OPP as appropriate. Please refer to the section above for an explanation of the options.

  6. Click Save.

How is occupational paternity pay calculated?

Tip: Both the statutory paternity pay and occupational paternity pay appear in the employee's record, on the Payslip breakdown tab, then Other pay items.

Before calculating an employee's occupational paternity pay (OPP) rate, you'll need to calculate the statutory paternity pay (SPP) daily rate and the employee's daily base rate.

Calculate the daily rate of SPP

The daily rate of statutory paternity pay in PayFit, is calculated as follows:

  1. The weekly rate is either the statutory rate of £172.48 or 90% of the employee's weekly pay, whichever is lower. You can check this in the Payslip break

  2. This rate is divided by the number of working days for the employee in a week.

Note: If the employee's OPP is set to a fixed amount, this is paid in addition to the SPP.

Calculate the employee's daily rate

  1. From the left, click Company settings, then Payroll set-up.

  2. Under the Calculation preferences section, check the Daily rate for Base pay.

  3. From the employee's record, on the Employment tab, check their salary.

  4. Calculate the daily rate using their salary and your company's daily rate calculation.

  5. If your employee's OPP is based on a percentage of their base pay that's lower than 100%, multiply their daily rate by the percentage.

Calculate the OPP

  1. Count the number of working days (based on the employee's schedule) they've been absent this month.

  2. Take the employee's daily rate, minus the SPP rate, this is the OPP rate.

  3. Multiply the number of working days absent, by the OPP rate.

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