Most French fathers now
take full paternity leave
Find out who is eligible, how the rules work and what could change under planned reforms.
A huge shift in attitudes has been recorded in a new Ined study
Prostock-studio/Shutterstock
A majority of French fathers now take the full number of days allotted for paternity leave (congé paternité).
Some 59% of them took their 25 days between July 2021 and December 2023, with 81% using more than seven days.
These are some of the conclusions drawn by the Institut national d’études démographiques (Ined) in a study published in its scientific review Population et Sociétés.
The study measured the effects of France’s new paternity leave law, which extended leave from 11 to 25 days (32 for multiple births) in July 2021.
“Paternity leave is now standard practice in France,” said Anne Solaz, the senior research director who conducted the study, speaking to The Connexion.
The law was meant to encourage fathers to become more involved and to better share household tasks following the birth of a child, easing women’s workloads, said Ms Solaz.
Fathers now have a total of 28 calendar days combining congé de naissance (three days off following the birth of a child) and paternity leave (25 days).
The first four days of congé paternité are required by law to be taken immediately after the three days granted by congé de naissance, giving fathers a full week with their newborn.
The remaining 21 days must be taken within six months of the birth in one of two ways: either as a continuous 21-day period or split into two separate periods of at least five days each.
In detail, the study shows several disparities based on socio-economic status and level of education.
Some 90% of fathers with full-time contracts and civil servants take paternity leave. For those on fixed-term contracts, the figure is 60%. The lowest rates are among self-employed and unemployed fathers, at 40% and 30% respectively.
About 85% of fathers with a Baccalauréat or higher take paternity leave, around 15% more than those without a Baccalauréat.
Financial reasons (8%) and heavy workloads (7%) are the two most common reasons given by fathers who do not take leave. Unwillingness comes third (7%), down 2% over 10 years and no longer the leading reason, as it was in 2011.
Wages are covered by the French social security system and capped at €4,000 per month, or €104 per day.
Several experts and politicians have called for extending congé paternité further.
La France insoumise and MoDem MPs Sarah Legrain and Delphine Lingemann drafted a bill recommending that it be extended to 16 weeks, matching maternity leave, with eight weeks being mandatory.
In 2020, a group of experts led by neuropsychiatrist Boris Cyrulnik recommended extending it to nine weeks.
France offers significantly more leave than the United Kingdom, where fathers can take between one and two weeks, either together or separately. The same duration applies for multiple births.
The United States does not have paternity leave per se, but rather a federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) that allows up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave, subject to certain conditions. Only a handful of states have enacted mandatory paid family leave.
Starting on July 1, fathers of children born from January 1 will benefit from a congé supplémentaire de naissance, a new measure included in the 2026 loi de financement de la Sécurité sociale. It introduces two additional months of paternity leave, with net salary paid at up to 70% and 60% in the first and second months respectively.
Ms Solaz said this is part of a government effort to encourage higher birth rates and counter a declining fertility rate, in line with what President Emmanuel Macron has called “réarmement démographique” (demographic rearmament).
Around 645,000 babies were born and 651,000 people died in 2025, the first time France has recorded a negative natural balance since 1945.
