When a child is born to a family, the parents are entitled to family leave (perhevapaa), i.e. to stay at home and look after the child.
Family leave means
- pregnancy leave (raskausvapaa) and special pregnancy leave (erityisraskausvapaa),
- parental leave (vanhempainvapaa), and
- child care leave (hoitovapaa).
Notify your employer of your family leave at least two months before your leave starts. If you are unemployed, inform your municipal employment services (työllisyyspalvelut) about taking parental leave.
The employer often pays the employee salary during the first weeks of pregnancy leave or family leave. No salary is paid for child care leave. However, family leave may also be entirely unpaid leave. Whether or not you are paid wages during family leave depends on your collective agreement. Check the matter with your employer.
If you are entitled to Kela benefits, Kela will pay you allowance for the duration of your family leave. Read more on the InfoFinland page Financial support for families.
If you have a permanent employment contract, you have the right to return to your job or to a comparable job at your old workplace at the end of your family leave. The employer is not allowed to discriminate against you or dismiss you for being pregnant.
Employers and employees in Finland are very familiar with family leave, and it is commonly utilised.
Pregnancy leave
The pregnancy leave lasts for 40 working days. It usually begins 30 working days before the child’s due date. Pregnancy leave must start no later than 14 working days before the due date.
If you have a job where your baby’s health or your own health is at risk, you can take special pregnancy leave as soon as your pregnancy is discovered.
If you are not paid wages during pregnancy leave, Kela can pay you a pregnancy allowance (raskausraha) during the pregnancy leave. Read more on the InfoFinland page Support during pregnancy.
Parental leave
Once the child has been born, you are entitled to take parental leave. Both parents are entitled to parental leave.
Only one parent at a time can take parental leave. However, parents can take 18 working days of parental leave or pregnancy leave and parental leave at the same time.
Parental leave lasts for 320 working days, i.e. approximately 13 months. If the child has two parents, both of them are entitled to 160 working days of leave. A parent may give up a maximum of 63 parental leave days to the child’s other parent. The person to whom the days are given up is entitled to parental leave for those days. A single parent can use all 320 working days.
If you are an employee, you have the right to take parental leave in up to four blocks. A block must be at least 12 working days. All parental leave must be taken before the child turns two. An employee may also take part-time parental leave.
If you are not paid wages during parental leave, Kela will pay you a parental allowance (vanhempainpäiväraha) during the parental leave. Read more on the InfoFinland page Benefits for a family after a child is born.
Child care leave
If you want to stay at home to take care of your child after your parental leave ends, you can take child care leave. You can stay on child care leave until the child turns three. You can start child care leave once 160 days (about six months) have passed from the child’s birth.
If you are an employee, you are entitled to up two to periods of child care leave. The minimum duration of a child care leave period is one month. An employer and employee may also agree on more or shorter periods of child care leave periods between themselves.
You can get child home care allowance (kotihoidon tuki) from Kela for the duration of the child care leave. Read more on the InfoFinland page Benefits for looking after a child at home.
Partial child care leave
Child care leave can also be part-time. An employer and employee can agree on partial child-care leave. This means working shorter hours and being paid correspondingly less. It is also possible for both parents to take partial child care leave, for example so that one parent works fewer hours in the morning and the other in the afternoon. You can stay on partial child-care leave until your child completes the second year of school.
You can apply to Kela for flexible care allowance (joustava hoitoraha) to care for a child who is under the age of three and for partial care allowance (osittainen hoitoraha) to care for a child who is in the first or second grade of school. Flexible care allowance is not granted for looking after a child who has turned three but is not yet in school.
Read more about flexible and partial child care allowance on the InfoFinland page Benefits for looking after a child at home.
Temporary child care leave
When a child under 10 years of age suddenly falls ill, a parent can stay at home to take care of the child. This is called temporary child care leave (tilapäinen hoitovapaa), which can last for up to four days at a time.
Notify your employer of the temporary child care leave and its estimated duration as soon as possible. The employer may request reliable proof of the reason for the temporary child care leave, such as a medical certificate.
By law, temporary child care leave is unpaid. However, it may have been agreed in the collective agreement that temporary child care leave is paid.
Read more: Occupational health and illness.
