Portuguese parliamentary working group backs longer parental leave
A Portuguese parliamentary working group approved a joint proposal by two parties to extend fully paid parental leave to 180 days when shared by both parents. The text still needs approval by a committee and the full chamber.
Members of Portugal's parliament, sitting in a working group on Tuesday, approved a joint proposal by the Socialist Party (PS) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) to extend parental leave paid through Social Security. The amendment provides for a longer fully paid period after a baby's birth and would apply only to leave starting next year. The text has not yet been finally adopted.
What the proposal says
If parents share the leave, they would receive 180 days (six months) on full pay, based on a reference wage calculated by Social Security. Each parent must take at least 30 consecutive days, or two periods of 15 consecutive days. A lone parent in a single-parent family would get all 180 days at 100% pay.
If the leave is not shared, the benefit would be 83% of the reference wage for 180 days. Parents could also take up to 210 days: paid at 90% if the father takes at least 60 consecutive days on top of his 28-day exclusive leave, or at 86% if each parent stays home alone with the baby for one of the last two months.
Currently, full pay covers only the first 120 days if the leave is not shared, or 150 days if the father takes 30 days exclusively. In both cases, parents can extend by a month, but at lower pay: 80% and 83% respectively.
Next steps
The text now goes to the parliamentary Committee on Labour, Social Security and Inclusion, then to a final vote in the full chamber. The measure is less ambitious than a citizens' initiative submitted to parliament in 2023, which called for 100% pay during the first 180 days and a possible extension to 210 or 240 days if shared.
The proposal would also let private-sector workers, as in the public sector, opt for a continuous working day. Employees with children under 12, or with dependants who have a disability or a chronic or oncological illness, could skip their lunch or dinner break and leave earlier, while keeping the right to a break of up to 30 minutes.
Comparison with other countries
Even after the change, Portugal's system would be less generous than neighbouring Spain's, where each parent gets 19 weeks of fully paid leave and single parents get 32. Sweden provides 480 days in total, with the benefit capped at 80% of salary. In Finland, each child entitles parents to 320 working days, 160 for each parent.
