Lisbon — Portugal is set to give parents more time off after the birth of a child, following a parliamentary working group's approval of a joint proposal by the centre-left Socialist Party (PS) and the centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD). The new framework, which still needs final approval from the full chamber, would allow parents to take fully paid leave for 180 days (six months) if they share it, or 150 days (five months) if only one parent takes it.
Under the shared-leave scenario, each parent must take at least 30 consecutive days, or two periods of 15 days, to qualify for a benefit equal to their full reference wage, as calculated by Social Security. In single-parent families, the lone parent would be entitled to the full 180 days at 100% pay.
Alternatively, parents who do not share leave would receive 83% of their reference wage for six months. They could also stretch the leave to 210 days, paid at 90% if the father takes at least 60 consecutive days (two months) in addition to his exclusive 28-day paternity leave, or at 86% if each parent stays home exclusively for one of the last two months.
More generous than current rules, but still a compromise
The current system provides fully paid leave for only 120 days if not shared, or 150 days if the father takes 30 days exclusively. Parents can extend that by a month, but with a drop in income — the benefit then falls to 80% or 83% of the reference amount.
The new framework is more favourable, but it stops short of what a citizens' legislative initiative proposed in 2023. That initiative, which formed the basis for the PS-PSD amendment, called for 100% pay during the first 180 days of a baby's life, with the option to extend to 210 or even 240 days if leave was shared. The approved version is less ambitious.
According to the Portuguese business daily Negócios, the change will not affect leave already under way; it applies only to leave starting from next year.
The proposal also introduces a measure already available in the public sector: private-sector workers with children under 12, or with dependants who have a disability or a chronic or oncological illness, may opt for a continuous working day. That means they can forgo their lunch or dinner break and work their hours in one stretch to leave earlier, while retaining the right to a break of up to 30 minutes.
How Portugal compares with the rest of Europe
Even with the extension, Portugal's system will remain less generous than Spain's. In Spain, each parent in a two-parent family is entitled to 19 weeks of fully paid leave, rising to 32 weeks for single-parent families.
France, until recently, offered just under four months of fully paid maternity leave for a first child, with fathers entitled to 28 days. Since July, new rules allow parents to share an additional one or two months of leave on top of existing entitlements, paid at 70% of net salary in the first month and 60% in the second.
Sweden, often cited as a benchmark, provides 480 days (around 16 months) of paid leave per child, though the monthly benefit cannot exceed 80% of salary. Finland offers 320 working days per child (about 14 months), with each parent entitled to 160 days, 63 of which can be transferred to the other parent. Parental benefit there is income-based and paid by social security.
The Portuguese measure now moves to the parliamentary Committee on Labour, Social Security and Inclusion, before a final vote in the full chamber. If approved, it will bring Portugal closer to the European mainstream — but still behind the Nordic model.
