Denmark: Are we moving towards a more gender equal parental leave?

Adoption of the new rules

Based on the EU directive on parental leave, the Danish Parliament on 3 March 2022 adopted the bill amending the current act on parental leave. The changes are based on the EU’s wish for earmarked leave for both parents with the purpose of creating a better work-life balance and thereby promoting gender equality.

The new rules apply to parents of children born on 2 August 2022 or later[1].

The new leave periods

According to the new rules, the biological mother is still entitled to 4 weeks of leave before the birth, just as the biological mother is obligated to have a minimum of two weeks of leave after the birth. After this period, the biological mother is entitled to have further 8 weeks of leave which (in whole or in part) can be transferred to the father/co-mother. After this period, the biological mother is entitled to a leave of further 32 weeks with a possibility of extension, as under the old rules. Compared to the old rules, the biological mother’s entitlement to leave is reduced by 4 weeks.

Under the old rules, the father/co-mother is entitled to 2 weeks of leave after the birth and is further entitled to 32 weeks of leave, with a possibility of extension.

The leave periods are illustrated below:

Payment during the leave

With the adoption of the new rules, the distribution of the allowance is equally divided between the biological mother and the father/co-mother, which means that each party (after the birth), as a rule, can receive an allowance for 24 weeks. The total amount of allowance is thus unchanged compared to the current rules.

From the 48 weeks of allowance, 2+9 weeks are earmarked for each party, if both parents are employed, and these weeks cannot be transferred, whereas the remaining 26 weeks can be freely divided between the biological mother and the father/co-mother.

The leave allowance payment can be illustrated as follows:

Image source: Danish Ministry of Employment

If one or both parents is/are not considered as an “employee” (e.g. by being self-employed or a manager), only 2 of the weeks for the parent who is not a wage earner is earmarked. 22 weeks are thus transferable.

Single parents

In accordance with the new act on parental leave, single mothers and single fathers/co-mothers are regarded equally. This means that the single parent – whether this being the biological mother or the father/co-mother – is entitled to 46 weeks of paid leave after the birth.

From 1 January 2024, a single parent can transfer a part of the leave period which is not earmarked to a close family member. This may be a sibling or a grandparent. The close family member, to whom the leave was transferred, must take the leave before the child reaches the age of 1.

As mentioned above, the number of transferable weeks of leave depends on whether the single parent is considered an “employee”.

LGBT+ families

From 1 January 2024, LGBT+ families’ possibilities for leave will be improved, as the child’s so-called “legal” parents have the possibility to transfer the non-earmarked weeks of leave to so-called “social” parents. Examples of social parents could be the legal parent’s spouse, a known donor with a parental relationship to the child, or for example the known donor’s spouse or cohabitant who has a parental relationship to the child.

Bird & Bird’s comments

The new rules entail equality between the parents as regards the distribution of allowance during the leave. The same equality does not exist under the current rules of the Danish Salaried Employees Act, according to which only the biological mother is entitled to half of her salary during the first 14 weeks after giving birth. It is therefore interesting to see whether the rules of the Danish Salaried Employees Act will also be amended so that the father/co-mother also obtains the same rights and thus reflects the principle of the act on parental leave.

Such equality already exists in the private labour market, where several companies offer (more) equal parental conditions to their employees. Moreover, it is debatable whether maintaining different parental conditions for employees could potentially be contrary to the rules of act on equal treatment.

In Finland, the family leave reform has come into force on 1 August 2022 and in practise, it impacts families residing in Finland with a child’s date of birth being 4 September 2022 or later.

[1] However, cf. below regarding single parents and LGBT+ families.