Maternity and parental leave in France 2026: 16 weeks

How many weeks, and how the allowance is worked out

The length grows with the size of the family:

• First or second child: 16 weeks (6 before, 10 after).
• Third child or later: 26 weeks (8 before, 18 after).
• Twins: 34 weeks (12 before, 22 after).
• Triplets or more: 46 weeks (24 before, 22 after).

The daily allowance takes the last 3 months of gross pay, capped at EUR 4,005 a month in 2026, divides it by 91.25 and removes a flat 21%. It never falls below EUR 11.12 or rises above EUR 104.02 a day.

Worked example on the EUR 2,962 monthly salary we use on the France employer cost page: 3 x 2,962 = EUR 8,886; 8,886 / 91.25 = EUR 97.38; less 21% = EUR 76.93 a day. Anyone earning EUR 4,005 a month or more hits the EUR 104.02 ceiling, so a senior hire on a large salary sees a much bigger gap to normal pay.

Leave rules in France at a glance

Paternity leave and the 3-day birth leave

The second parent gets 25 calendar days of paternity leave (32 for a multiple birth). It follows a mandatory 3 working-day birth leave, and the first 4 calendar days after that birth leave cannot be skipped. CPAM pays the same EUR 11.12 to EUR 104.02 daily allowance, and a collective agreement may keep full salary instead.

Service-Public's paternity page does not say who pays the 3 days of birth leave, so we leave that open.

The new birth leave for 2026 births

France added a congé supplémentaire de naissance for children born on or after January 1, 2026. Each parent can take 1 or 2 months, together or one after the other, and split it into two 1-month blocks. It became available on July 1, 2026, and for children born from that date it must be taken within 9 months.

You do not pay the employee during it. CPAM pays 70% of net salary in the first month and 60% in the second, each capped at the EUR 4,005 social security ceiling. It comes on top of maternity, paternity and adoption leave. The older congé parental d'éducation is a separate scheme we did not recheck this month.

Sick pay: the leave cost that does reach the employer

Illness is where French law makes the employer pay. CPAM pays 50% of the daily basic wage from the 4th day of a stoppage, after 3 waiting days, with the wage capped at 1.4 times the SMIC (EUR 2,613.82 a month in 2026), so the most it pays is EUR 42.97 gross a day. Once an employee has a year of service, you top that up after a 7-day wait: 90% of gross pay and then 66.66%, minus the allowance, for 60 days at 1 to 5 years of service, rising to 180 days at 31 years or more. Collective agreements often do better.

Paid holiday is 30 working days a year counted Monday to Saturday (5 weeks, earned at 2.5 days a month), and there are 11 public holidays. Employer social contributions come to 31.79% of a EUR 35,546 salary before the RGDU general reduction, which lowers that figure at this pay level, and before smaller items such as the work-accident rate; the French salary data and the SMIC page show where your hire sits.

Running French parental leave through an EOR

With an employer of record, the EOR is the French employer: it handles the CPAM paperwork, applies the collective agreement and pays any top-up the agreement requires, then bills you. Two questions to ask before you sign: does the agreement your hire falls under keep full pay during maternity or paternity leave, and does the EOR charge its monthly fee during unpaid months? Published pricing pages do not answer the second one.

Listed EOR fees run from $99 (Native Teams, whose help center says EUR 99) to $699 (Oyster) per employee per month, checked October 16 and 18, 2026 (see the employer cost index by country). Deel lists $599. Compare providers on our ranked EOR list or work out the total with the international employee cost calculator.