New parents in France to get two extra months leave

New parents in France are to benefit from two months extra paid parental leave from January 2027, as part of a “demographic re-armament” plan to combat the country’s falling fertility rate.

The Senate approved the extra parental leave time on Monday, November 24 as part of the new social security budget. 

The aim of the extra leave is to give more flexibility to parents and enable partners to – where applicable – support the mother postpartum, said Aurore Bergé, Minister for Gender Equality.

The leave will:

• Apply for children born or adopted into the family

• Apply to each parent (four months extra in total) 

• Be sharable between parents, who can take the leave at the same time, or alternate it between each other

The leave will provide for:

• 70% of net salary for the first month

• 60% of net salary for the second month

Senator Laurence Rossignol said that it was important for the loss of income to “not be too significant”, to ensure that the leave is still attractive and accessible to fathers, given that men earn more than women on average.

Ms Rossignol said that the bill was a “good measure” to ensure that the parental bond is not solely “between mother and child in the first two months of life”, and to enable a “fairer distribution of the mental load going forward”.

Start date debates

The extra leave is set to come into force from January 1, 2027, and will not replace existing parental leave, but will be added to it. 

Currently in France, eligible mothers are entitled to 16 weeks of paid maternity leave (of which six are to be taken before the birth), and eligible fathers to 28 days of paid leave (including four days of compulsory leave after the birth). 

The number of weeks increases with each extra child (e.g. 16 weeks for a single child, 34 weeks for twins etc). If there are birth complications or the child is admitted to hospital after their birth, you can also have extra time off.

Parents who are adopting a child are also allowed 16 weeks of leave shared between them.

There are conditions to claim (such as, for example, you must have been eligible for state healthcare for at least 10 months before the child’s due date, and must have worked at least 150 hours in the 90 days before the leave begins).

After this, parental leave can be taken until the child is three years old, at a rate of around €350-400 per month (paid by the French medical insurance system, la Securité sociale).

The intention to extend the parental leave allowance was first announced by President Emmanuel Macron in 2024, as part of “demographic re-armament” plans designed to help combat France’s dropping fertility rate. 

France’s birth rate reached a near 30-year low in 2023, even as life expectancy hit a new record high. In September this year, death rates exceeded birth rates for the first time ever (figures from INSEE showed 651,000 deaths compared to 650,000 births in 2024).