Good news for future parents. The 2026 draft budget provides for the creation of birth leave offering up to two additional months per parent after the birth. Concretely, a mother could combine these two months with her maternity leave (16 weeks), bringing her interruption of activity to almost six months. The father, who currently benefits from 25 days of paternity leave, would see his total period close to three months.
More proximity to the newborn and better paid!
The proposed compensation would also be increased. While the amounts of current parental leave are often limited to around €427 per month, the new level of compensation mentioned is inspired by European models. And could represent 70% of the net salary the first month, then 60% the second, it will however be modulated according to income. This new leave would be added to the existing parental leave, without replacing it, and aims to encourage parenthood without increasing the long absences likely to penalize careers, particularly those of women.
Several technical points remain to be clarified: eligibility conditions, modalities for part-time employees, coordination with childcare and financing in a strict budgetary context… The chosen timetable aims for entry into force in 2026, subject to the vote of Parliament.
A lever to slow down the decline in births
The measure aims above all to undertake this demographic rearmament of France mentioned in 2024. The country has in fact recorded around 678,000 births in 2024, its lowest level since the post-war period. Birth leave is presented as a tool to make the arrival of a child less financially restrictive and to encourage more fathers to get involved early: today, only 0.8% of fathers take parental leave compared to 14% of mothers, according to the OFCE. By offering shorter but better compensated leave, the executive hopes to reduce this gap.
Another significant advantage, this leave will free up places “today occupied by very young children under one year old in order to facilitate recourse to allow parents to return to working life in the best conditions”. He estimates that 50,000 places could be “freed up” for families who have difficulty accessing the reception offer.
If the measure is adopted, it could come into force during 2026, or even 2027. An implementation deadline that the associations consider late, even if they welcome this progress. On RadioFrance, Guillemette Leneveu, general director of the National Union of Family Associations, declared: “This measure can be likely to restore confidence, to once again allow parents to have more time and therefore it absolutely must be put in place, that it comes into force from 2026. This gives a bit of the feeling that when there is more, we wait, but when there is less, then, on the other hand, it happens very quickly.