As of February 2018, the new paternity leave entitlement for fathers has come into effect in the Czech Republic. The new seven-day entitlement, which allows fathers to claim up to 70% of their salary, is intended to encourage father’s early involvement in caring for young children.
The new entitlement is available for fathers with sickness insurance (the majority for whom is paid by their employer). Fathers are entitled to up to 70% of their salary for seven calendar days of leave within six weeks of the birth, adoption or fostering of a child. The leave can be taken at any time in the six weeks following the child’s birth.
Mothers in the Czech Republic are currently entitled to 20 weeks of postnatal maternity support, which can also be split with the father as shared parental leave after the sixth week.
Parental leave policy in the EU
If you become father in Finland, you can take three weeks off after your baby was born, in Portugal it is even four weeks. The longest “holidays” can be taken by fathers in South Korea and Japan. But eight developed countries (USA, Canada, Switzerland and Slovakia among them) have no time off for fathers.
Until the first of February 2018 the Czech Republic was the ninth country with not one day off. for new fathers Until then only women had 28 weeks of maternity leave, getting 70% of their income and then parental leave up to the 4th birthday of their child, getting 220 000 CZK (7 333 EUR) in total. Depending on the length of the leave, the amount is usually around 7000 CZK (233 EUR) a month. The shorter you stay at home, the higher the monthly amount. This parental leave can be taken either by mother or father of the child.
Now a new step was taken by the Czech government to support the bond between the child and its father – fathers can take 7 days off within first six weeks after the baby was born. They get 70% of their salary. The only disadvantage is that it can be only taken as seven consequent working days and it cannot be split into shorter blocks.
More info about the situation in the EU including recent changes in this area which took place in Sweden in Germany can be found at the ec.europe.eu website here. More info about the system in the Czech Republic can be found on the euraxess.ec.europa.eu website here.
Comparison of OECD countries according to the length of parental leave
| Country | Length of paternity leave | Financial support (% of income) |
| South Korea | 53 weeks | 30,7 % |
| Japan | 52 weeks | 58,4 % |
| France | 28 weeks | 20,2 % |
| Luxembourg | 26 weeks | 39,8 % |
| Portugal | 21 weeks | 54,2 % |
| Belgium | 19 weeks | 25,8 % |
| Island | 13 weeks | 63,8 % |
| Sweden | 10 weeks | 75,6 % |
| Norway | 10 weeks | 98,7 % |
| Finnland | 9 weeks | 70,7 % |
| Germany | 9 weeks | 65 % |
| Austria | 9 weeks | 80 % |
| Spain | 2 weeks | 100 % |
| Slovenia | 2 weeks | 90 % |
| Great Britain | 2 weeks | 20,6 % |
| Poland | 2 weeks | 100 % |
| Estonia | 2 weeks | 100 % |
| Denmark | 2 weeks | 54,1 % |
| Australia | 2 weeks | 42 % |
| Mexico | 1 week | 100 % |
| Hungary | 1 week | 100 % |
| Chile | 1 week | 100 % |
| Netherlands | 2 days | 100 % |
| Greece | 2 days | 100 % |
| Italy | 1 day | 100 % |
| USA | No day | – |
| Turkey | No day | – |
| Switzerland | No day | – |
| Slovakia | No day | – |
| New Zealand | No day | – |
| Israel | No day | – |
| Ireland | No day | – |
| Canada | No day | – |
Source: OECD 2016