The creation of a new birth leave, which will allow parents to have up to two additional months each to welcome their child, is included in the social security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2026, presented on Tuesday by the Government.
The amount of compensation for this leave, which is added to the existing maternity leave (sixteen weeks) and paternity leave (28 days), will be determined later by decree.
Announced in January 2024 by President Emmanuel Macron with a view to a “demographic rearmament” in the face of the declining birth rate, the application of this birth permit was suspended after the dissolution of the National Assembly in June of the same year.
The government initially planned to replace parental leave with this new birth leave before backtracking.
Work will be done to reform the existing parental leave, which is increasingly less used, the PLFSS specifies, but its reduction or disappearance remains “difficult to foresee in the short term”, given “the tensions that currently weigh on childcare arrangements.”
Regarding compensation for birth leave, the Delegate Minister for Gender Equality, Aurore Bergé, has assured several times that it would be better compensated than the current parental leave. The latter, which can be taken full-time or part-time until the child turns three, allows you to earn about 400 euros per month.
Source: BFM TV
