Maternity, Paternity and Parental Leave

Czech law separates leave (time off work, set by the Labour Code, Act No. 262/2006 Coll.) from the benefits paid during it. Maternity and paternity benefits come from sickness insurance (nemocenské pojištění) and are paid by the Czech Social Security Administration (ČSSZ). The longer parental allowance (rodičovský příspěvek) is a state benefit paid by the Labour Office (Úřad práce ČR), and it does not depend on insurance.

Maternity: leave and benefit (peněžitá pomoc v mateřství)

• Leave: an employee is entitled to 28 weeks of maternity leave (37 weeks for twins or more). The time counts as work for annual holiday entitlement.
• Benefit: 70% of the reduced daily assessment base (based on earnings in the previous 12 months), for 28 or 37 weeks. You start it between 8 and 6 weeks before the expected birth.
• Conditions: you must be sickness-insured when the benefit starts (or within a protection period after your job ended) and have at least 270 days of sickness insurance in the last 2 years. Self-employed women must have paid voluntary sickness insurance for at least 180 days in the year before.
• Fathers can take over the maternity benefit from the 7th week after birth for at least 7 days, by written agreement with the mother, if they meet the same insurance conditions. The first 6 weeks after birth belong only to the mother.

Paternity: leave and benefit (otcovská)

• 14 calendar days at 70% of the reduced daily assessment base, taken within 6 weeks of the birth (longer if the child or mother is in hospital).
• The father must be on the birth certificate; the parents need not be married. Employers must give paternity leave for the time the benefit is paid. A self-employed father needs at least 3 months of voluntary sickness insurance.

Parental leave and parental allowance

• Parental leave (rodičovská dovolená): the employer must grant it on request, to the mother after maternity leave and to the father from the birth, for as long as asked, until the child turns 3.
• Parental allowance (2026): for children born from 1 January 2024, a total of CZK 350,000 per youngest child, paid until age 3 (twice that for twins or more). You choose the monthly amount within a limit based on previous earnings. If your maternity benefit is below CZK 15,000 a month, the Labour Office tops it up to CZK 15,000 from the birth.
• A parent without sickness insurance (for example unemployed) gets no maternity benefit but can receive parental allowance from the birth.

Common pitfalls for newcomers

• An agreement to complete a job (DPP) creates sickness insurance only in months with earnings of at least CZK 12,000, so small side jobs often give no right to maternity or paternity benefit.
• Parental allowance can be claimed only 3 months back, so apply soon after the birth.
• Care of a child up to age 4 counts as a substitute period for your pension, so these years do not reduce your pension record.
• ČSSZ pays maternity and paternity benefits in arrears (after the period they cover), so plan your budget for the first month.

Official guidance: ČSSZ: maternity benefit, ČSSZ: paternity benefit, ČSSZ: handbooks for parents-to-be, Labour Office: parental allowance, MPSV: parental leave