Key Takeaways
- Romania has the EU’s widest gap in maternity and paternity leave, at 79.3 full-rate equivalent weeks.
- Spain is the only EU country with no parental leave gap. Both parents receive 16 full-rate equivalent weeks.
- The four widest parental leave gaps in the EU are in Romania, Estonia, Hungary, and Bulgaria.
- Germany’s parental leave gap ranks near the middle of the EU at 33.4 weeks. It is still the only EU country with no guaranteed leave set aside for fathers around the birth itself.
- Portugal and Luxembourg post some of the smallest parental leave gaps in the EU. Both reach this by giving fathers longer leave, not by shortening leave for mothers.
- The EU-wide parental leave gap exists mainly because maternity leave entitlements remain far longer than any leave reserved for fathers, not because paternity leave is unusually low paid.
Paid Parental Leave for Mothers and Fathers Across the EU
| Country | Mothers (weeks) | Fathers (weeks) | Leave Gap (weeks) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Romania | 88.7 | 9.4 | 79.3 |
| Estonia | 82.1 | 4.3 | 77.8 |
| Hungary | 75.9 | 2.3 | 73.6 |
| Bulgaria | 70.1 | 1.9 | 68.2 |
| Czechia | 50.6 | 1.2 | 49.4 |
| Slovak Republic | 66.1 | 21.0 | 45.1 |
| Croatia | 56.0 | 12.7 | 43.3 |
| Lithuania | 52.5 | 9.8 | 42.7 |
| Slovenia | 52.1 | 10.7 | 41.4 |
| Austria | 46.5 | 8.1 | 38.4 |
| Latvia | 43.9 | 6.8 | 37.1 |
| Germany | 38.2 | 4.8 | 33.4 |
| Poland | 40.3 | 8.3 | 32.0 |
| Greece | 37.0 | 6.4 | 30.6 |
| Finland | 39.7 | 10.8 | 28.9 |
| Italy | 31.7 | 5.9 | 25.8 |
| Sweden | 34.4 | 10.9 | 23.5 |
| Cyprus | 21.0 | 1.4 | 19.6 |
| Luxembourg | 38.5 | 20.5 | 18.0 |
| Denmark | 20.4 | 5.5 | 14.9 |
| Malta | 19.8 | 6.3 | 13.5 |
| France | 19.6 | 7.7 | 11.9 |
| Netherlands | 22.3 | 11.3 | 11.0 |
| Belgium | 15.1 | 6.8 | 8.3 |
| Portugal | 22.3 | 14.5 | 7.8 |
| Ireland | 8.2 | 2.1 | 6.1 |
| Spain | 16.0 | 16.0 | 0.0 |
Source: OECD Family Database (2025)
Full-rate equivalent weeks convert leave length and payment rate into the number of weeks that would be paid at 100% of earnings to achieve the same total income. Example: 10 weeks of leave paid at 50% of salary has a full-rate equivalent of 5 weeks, the same total pay as 5 weeks at full salary.
The parental leave gap reflects the difference between the full-rate equivalent weeks available to mothers and to fathers in each country.
Data reflect national or federal-level entitlements only. They exclude regional variations and employer-provided top-ups. Figures show paid leave only. Several countries, including Germany, also allow additional unpaid leave beyond what is shown here.
Figures assume a full-time employee earning the national average wage. Coverage and payment rates for self-employed or part-time parents can differ.
In Spain, a father and a mother receive the same paid leave when a child is born. In Romania, a father gets about a tenth of what a mother gets. Both are subject to the same EU rules: at least 10 working days of paid paternity leave, plus two months of parental leave per parent that cannot be passed to the other parent. What each country built on top of that minimum looks nothing like the others.
Central and Eastern Europe Has the EU’s Widest Parental Leave Gaps
Four EU countries post a parental leave gap above 65 weeks:
- Romania: 79.3 weeks
- Estonia: 77.8 weeks
- Hungary: 73.6 weeks
- Bulgaria: 68.2 weeks
Romania, Estonia, Hungary, and Bulgaria offer some of the longest paid leaves for mothers in the EU. Only a small share is reserved for fathers.
Germany Has No Statutory Paternity Leaves
Germany’s parental leave gap sits close to the middle of the EU at 33.4 weeks. Eleven EU countries have a wider gap. Yet Germany is still the only EU country with no guaranteed, statutory leave set aside for fathers around a child’s birth.
Germany does not have a separate, guaranteed paternity leave. Instead, fathers can receive Elterngeld. It is a state payment replacing part of a parent’s income while away from work. Here is how it works:
- Parents can share up to twelve months of Elterngeld, or fourteen if the father takes two months himself.
- Those two months, the only leave reserved for fathers, run about 8.7 weeks.
- Elterngeld does not replace full income, so those 8.7 weeks convert to a full rate equivalent of 4.8 weeks, the table figure.
The two extra Elterngeld months are a condition for a bonus, not a guarantee like a mother’s maternity leave. Elterngeld does not depend on employment status. Employees, self-employed people, and the unemployed can all claim it.
In practice, Germany’s childbirth-related leave is not entirely zero:
- Most fathers can still claim about one paid day off around the birth, separate from Elterngeld.
- A general workplace law for short, unavoidable absences usually covers this, though contracts can exclude it.
- Federal civil servants have begun winning court cases for the EU’s 10-day minimum, unlike private employees.
Spain shows that the parental leave gap can close entirely. Fathers and mothers each get 16 weeks, all paid in full. Spain reached this by design, raising paternity leave in five steps:
- 2017: 2 to 4 weeks
- 2018: 5 weeks
- 2019: 8 weeks
- 2020: 12 weeks
- 2021: 16 weeks, matching maternity leave exactly
Each parent’s leave is non-transferable, so a father cannot hand his weeks to the mother. Uptake among eligible fathers rose from under half to more than three-quarters by 2023.
Countries close the parental leave gap by giving fathers their own reserved leave, not by shortening leave for mothers. Where father leave stays optional, as in Germany and much of Central and Eastern Europe, the gap stays wide no matter how generous the system looks.
More topics
- Which EU Country Has the Highest Cost of Living?
- Which Countries Do Foreigners in Germany Come From?
- Where Do People Arriving from Abroad Settle in Germany?
- Where Do Immigrants in Germany Come From?
- EU At-Risk-of-Poverty Rate by Country Shows a Growing Divide
- EU Household Expenditure on Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages
- Treatable Mortality Rate Improvement Across EU Countries
- Apartment Rents Are Rising Faster Than House Rents in Germany
- Which EU Countries Had the Highest Inflation Rates?
- EU Fertility Rate by Country
- Average Working Hours in EU Countries
- Gender Pay Gap Across EU Countries
- Which EU Countries Have the Highest Unemployment?
- The Best EU Countries to Retire In
- Most Prosperous EU Countries by Prosperity Index
