Maternity, paternity and parental leave in Sweden

There is no separate maternity pay in Sweden

A pregnant employee has the right to at least 7 weeks of leave before the birth and 7 weeks after, 14 weeks in all, and 2 of those weeks are compulsory (Föräldraledighetslag, section 4). The pay for that period is not a maternity benefit of its own: she draws föräldrapenning days from the same 480-day pot as everyone else.

Försäkringskassan publishes the SEK 1,259 daily maximum but not the annual income ceiling behind it in the material we read, so we do not quote one. For a well-paid hire, the practical point is that the benefit stops rising at SEK 1,259 a day.

Leave rules in Sweden at a glance

Swedish paternity leave: 10 days plus 90 reserved days

The parent who was not pregnant gets 10 days, full or part time, when the child is born or adopted. Försäkringskassan pays them, not the employer; its employer page does not state the compensation rate, so we leave it out.

The larger right is in the parental benefit. Each parent has 90 days at sickness-benefit level that cannot be handed to the other parent (60 for children born in 2015 or earlier). So in a two-parent family, expect the father or partner to take more than the 10 days at the birth, because 90 benefit days are reserved for each parent.

How the 480 days are divided

• 390 days at sickness-benefit level (about 80% of pay, SEK 250 to SEK 1,259 a full day).
• 90 days at SEK 180 a day.
• 660 days for twins.
• Each parent keeps 90 non-transferable days; the rest can be shared.
• A full-time leave right until the child is 18 months old (Föräldraledighetslag, section 5).

For planning, a parent can be on full-time leave at any point until the child is 18 months old. The Sweden hiring and cost guide covers notice and contract rules that sit alongside this, and Norway's quota model is set out under parental leave in Norway.

What Swedish leave costs you as the employer

Sick pay (sjuklön) is yours for days 1 to 14: 80% of pay, minus a waiting-period deduction (karensavdrag) of 20% of average weekly sick pay. From day 15, Försäkringskassan takes over (Sick Pay Act 1991:1047).

On a SEK 380,000 salary: weekly pay is 380,000 / 52 = SEK 7,307.69; sick pay at 80% is SEK 5,846.15 a week; the deduction is 20% of that, SEK 1,169.23. A full 14-day absence costs 2 x 5,846.15 minus 1,169.23 = SEK 10,523.08.

Vacation is 25 days a year under the Annual Leave Act, only 5 if employment starts after August 31 of the vacation year, with a holiday supplement of 0.43% of monthly salary per paid day under the same-salary rule (or 12% of pay under the percentage rule). The law names 13 public holidays, but some always fall on weekends. Employer contributions are 31.42%, and our sample on-cost is 32.60% (see the Swedish average pay figures and the pay floor in Sweden, which is set by agreement rather than law).

Using an EOR for a Swedish parent

An EOR employs the person in Sweden, so it handles the leave notice, adjusts payroll for föräldrapenning days and pays the first 14 days of sick pay before passing the cost on. Ask whether the collective agreement it applies adds anything on top of the state benefit: agreement costs in Sweden come on top of statutory ones, and the statute does not show them.

Published EOR fees span $99 a month per employee at Native Teams (its help center says EUR 99) to $699 at Oyster (see the cost index), and Deel lists $599, all checked October 16 and 18, 2026; our EOR rankings compare deposits and exit terms.