Maternity, paternity and parental leave in Sweden

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How it works

The Parental Leave Act gives every employee the right to be fully absent until the child is 18 months old regardless of benefit, to reduce hours by up to a quarter until the child is eight, and to take leave for the days on which föräldrapenning is paid. The benefit itself is 480 days per child, of which 390 are paid at the sickness-benefit level — just under 80% of qualifying income up to the ceiling — and 90 at the minimum level; parents with low or no income receive a basic amount for the 390 days. Ninety days at the sickness-benefit level are reserved for each parent; since July 2024 parents may transfer up to 45 days each to another person, such as a grandparent. Days can be taken until the child is twelve, but only 96 remain available after the fourth birthday. The other parent has ten days of temporary parental benefit at the birth. A mother may also take pregnancy benefit in the last weeks if her work is physically demanding. Collective agreements commonly add a salary top-up (föräldralön) of around 10%.

If you run a team in Sweden

Grant leave on two months' notice, in up to three periods a year unless you agree more, and do not disadvantage anyone for taking it. You pay nothing statutory — Försäkringskassan pays the parent directly — but many collective agreements require a top-up. Holiday accrues for up to 120 days of parental leave per child (180 for single parents).

If you work in Sweden

Apply to Försäkringskassan for föräldrapenning and tell your employer at least two months before you want to be off. Decide with the other parent how to split the shareable days; 90 each cannot be transferred. Keep in mind that most days must be used before the child turns four.

Parental leave and annual leave

Up to 120 days of parental leave per child (180 for a sole custodian) are holiday-qualifying, so a parent on leave for four months still earns full paid holiday.

The annual leave entitlement itself is covered on our Sweden annual leave page — 25 working days minimum.

Keeping the record straight

Long leaves are where leave records go wrong quietly: holiday that kept accruing for months and was never credited, a return date nobody diarised, a reduced entitlement applied where the law forbids it. In Sweden the rules above decide what is owed on return, and the record has to show it. A tracker like Leavo keeps the leave, the accrual and the approvals in one place so the return is a date, not a dispute. We compare the options in our leave management software guide, and the policy side — carryover, payout, accrual — in our guides.

Source

Primary source: Föräldraledighetslag (1995:584); Socialförsäkringsbalken, ch. 12–13 (föräldrapenning). Benefit rates and ceilings change every year and collective agreements frequently improve on the statutory scheme — confirm against the current text before acting. See our methodology.