The Federal Government will trial a scheme to pay employees wanting to donate an organ a six-week salary on the minimum wage.

Under the scheme, workers will be paid up to $606 per week for six weeks to help ease the burden of medical costs.

Health Minister Tanya Plibersek says medical and organ donation groups have long argued for the need for a living donor paid-leave scheme.

"Living donors make an incredibly generous gift," she said.

"Because the procedure to transplant an organ is not without risk to the donor, we want to ensure they are assisted during the recovery period after surgery."

Ms Plibersek says the salary will be based on the national minimum wage and will be paid to employers to pass on.

The Government is committing $1.3 million to trial the initiative for two years.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing Shayne Neumann says an average of 288 people donate an organ every year.

"More than 99 per cent of living donations in Australia involve the donation of a kidney," he said.

"This new initiative will help alleviate some of the financial burden for donors, who usually donate to someone they have a strong emotional attachment like their child, partner or good friend."

Mr Neumann says if the number of donations can be increased, the longer-term medical costs to taxpayers for treatments such as kidney dialysis will be reduced.

"But this will assist not just those people but also the tax payers - I mean end-stage kidney disease is a major cost to Australians," he said.

Australian Medical Association of Queensland president Dr Alex Markwell says the scheme will take away some of the financial pressure during recovery.

"It's certainly not supposed to be compensation or anything other than some financial relief for the time taken off work," he said.

"I understand that it's only an option for people who are currently working and most people wouldn't have six weeks' worth of sick leave, so it provides some additional support."

Transplant Australia chief executive officer Chris Thomas says it has been difficult for potential donors because many cannot take sick leave.

He estimates there could be over 100 extra a donors a year because of the scheme.

"The cost of dialysis to society over giving someone a kidney transplant. is about $80,000 a year," he said.

Kidney Health chief executive officer Anne Wilson says she has been calling for a similar scheme for many years.

"Providing the ability to take time off work whilst still having some form of income for everyday expenses such as bills, mortgage, groceries etc means there is one thing less to worry about for this group of people, who are giving someone else the gift of life," she said.