When it comes to parental leave, France does not come out on top in the European charts.
It is not as generous in terms of time as Germany, which offers up to 14 months of leave, nor is it as gender-equal as Sweden, which offers parents 16 months divided equally between the mother and father.
Nevertheless, in an effort to boost birth rates, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the country would seek to shorten parental leave, while making it better paid and more gender-equal.
READ MORE: EXPLAINED: How much time can parents in France take off for sick children?
How does family leave work in France?
French fathers can currently take only one month of paid paternity leave (after a child's birth), compared to 16 weeks of maternity leave for mothers.
Paternity leave is also granted to the mother's partner, even if they are not the biological father, which includes same-sex couples. For gay male couples, only one of the couple can take parental leave.
Couples who are adopting can benefit from 'adoption leave' - full details here.
In France, maternity leave is broken down by leave taken prior to birth (6 weeks usually) and after birth (10 weeks usually), though these amounts can be extended for those having twins or triplets.
Technically, either parent can take up to three years of extended parental leave after the initial leave, but the pay is so low that few families opt to do so. Around 80 percent of mothers return to work after 16 weeks.
How does payment work?
When it comes to pay during full-time leave, the parent - if they are working as an employee (salarié) - will stop being paid by their company and will instead be paid by the state.
The standard payment comes from the health sector - sécurité sociale.
The amount depends on your salary, but the minimum daily amount cannot be less than €10.79 or more than €100.36. You can simulate how much you would receive here. The payment is given out every 14 days.
It is also possible that, based on the company and the collective agreement it falls under, that the employer could offer additional compensation.
READ MORE: Why you really should read your French 'convention collective'
Parents may also be entitled to an aid (usually means-tested) called the 'Prestation d'accueil du jeune enfant" (PAJE), which is made up of the following allowances (some of which can be combined):
- The birth or adoption bonus (prime à la naissance or prime à l'adoption) - a one-time payment awarded during the 7th month of pregnancy. This is means-tested. For example, a couple with a combined income of €45,979 would be awarded €1,019.40.
- The basic allowance (allocation de base) - paid from the month following the birth or arrival of the child in the home until the month before the child's 3rd birthday. This is also means-tested, you can find the parameters here.
- The childcare supplement (le complément de libre choix du mode de garde, or CMG) - this is paid up to the child's 6th birthday if the child is looked after by a registered childminder, home childminder, a home childminding association or company or a micro-crèche.
There is also the 'shared child-rearing benefit' (prestation partagée d’éducation de l’enfant, also known as PREPARE, which went into effect in 2015 in an effort to boost gender equality. It was meant to encourage parents to split time away from work during the first three years of a child's life.
PREPARE is usually the flat number that people reference when comparing France's parental leave amounts.
The aid and its duration depends on the number of children and your family situation (single or couple). It cannot be combined with some other benefits - for example, the parent receiving social security payments cannot combine those with PREPARE.
For a couple with one child, the duration would be six months per parent up until the child's first birthday.
As of 2023, the monthly amount was €428.71 for a parent who has completely stopped work. It is reduced to €277.14 for a part-time working parent (working max half-time), and down to €159.87 for a parent working between 50 and 80 percent of the time.
It is this aid that French President Emmanuel Macron's government has promised to increase in 2025.
READ MORE: France to extend paid parental leave from 2025
You can estimate how much you might receive using the CAF simulator.
So how does France compare?
In terms of maternity leave, the UK outperforms France by offering paid leave for up to 39 weeks, with 90 percent of one's average weekly earnings (pre-tax) paid during the first six weeks, and either £172.48 or 90 percent of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the next 33 weeks.
However, France offers more leave for fathers - in the UK, the statutory standard is that they only get two weeks of paid paternity leave.
But France is not as gender equal as Sweden, which offers 16 months of leave, to be divided equally between the mother and father (or between both parents in the case of same-sex couples).
In Sweden, either parent can donate five of those months to the other parent.
However, AFP reported that in reality, women continue to take longer leave to soften the financial hit for the household because they are often paid less than men.
But the gender gap is narrowing. Only one in ten Swedish couples shared the leave equally in 2005, but by 2022, 46 percent of those taking parental leave were men.
In comparison, in terms of French parents who take full-time leave, qualifying them for the PREPARE monthly aid, the vast majority who did so were mothers. A 2021 study looking at the effectiveness of the policy found that only 0.8 percent of fathers took advantage of the aid, fully stopping work for their first child, in comparison to 13.7 percent of mothers.
Sweden's family leave is also well paid - for the first 13 months the parents receive 80 percent of their salary, up to a limit of 38,480 kronor per month (€3,380).
READ MORE: How to make the most of your 480 days of parental leave in Sweden
Spain also does better than France on the equality front - paternity leave is 16 weeks, as long as maternity leave. Both parents receive full pay during their leave.
France does a little better for parents who want to take longer leave, thanks to PREPARE, while in Spain parents can take up to three years off, but they do not receive any payment.
Like France, plans are underway to help boost the country's birthrate, which is one of the lowest in the EU. Spain is considering increasing the maternity and paternity leave to 20 weeks this year.
But when it comes to paid leave, Germany and Poland top European charts. German parents can take up to a year off, which they can use up to the child's third birthday.
If the two parents share it, the leave can be increased to 14 months. Over the first 10 months they receive two-thirds of their salary, up to €1,800 per month.
While in Poland the parental leave is shorter -- nine and a half months, split between the two parents -- it is even better paid. Throughout the whole leave the parent gets 70 percent of his or her salary.
But France still does better than countries like Switzerland and the US, which do not have statutory paid parental leave.
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