Maternity Leave in the Netherlands

It’s Mat Leave Monday! Happy Victoria Day to my fellow Canadians. I hope you’re enjoying the long weekend, and that if you spent it at a campground it wasn’t too soggy. As for me, I am not a camper. I did my time in Girl Guides, and now I prefer to sleep in a bed. But if you are of hardier stock I salute you.

Today I am talking about maternity leave in the Netherlands. Which has no particular relationship to Victoria Day or Queen Victoria that I know of. However, thanks to the Netherlands Embassy in Canada I was able to track down this photo of Queen Victoria and the Dutch Princess Wilhelmina. I’m trying to tie it all together, people! I need you to humour me here.

Anyways, I have no first-hand experience with maternity leave in Holland. If you have detailed questions please refer to the English site for the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, or this first-hand account in English. If you want information in Dutch, you’re on your own.

Dutch mothers are entitled to at least 16 weeks of pregnancy and maternity leave. ‘Pregnancy’ leave is the leave that you take before the baby is born, and ‘maternity’ leave is the leave that you take after. Mothers start maternity leave 4-6 weeks before the baby is due. The remaining 10-12 weeks is taken after the baby is born. If you go overdue, the designated 10-12 weeks of maternity leave will not start until after birth, so your combined pregnancy and maternity leave will exceed the 16-week minimum.

During pregnancy and maternity leave mothers receive 100% of their income, to a maximum of €174.64 per day. This is roughly equivalent to $277 CAD or $235 USD. Self-employed mothers may also receive pregnancy and maternity pay. The amount they receive depends on how much they worked and the profits they filed with the government. Those who worked at least 1225 hours in the previous year receive €318.75 ($506 CAD) per week, those who worked less will receive a smaller amount that varies with their earnings.

Adoptive parents in the Netherlands are eligible for 4 weeks paid adoption leave. Both parents may receive this leave, and it may be taken anytime from 2 weeks before the adoption to 16 weeks after. The rate of pay and the qualifications are the same as for pregnancy and maternity leave. Dutch fathers are eligible for 2 days paternity leave after their wife or partner gives birth. They are also allowed to take two days of ‘other short-term absence leave’ for the birth, and the registration of the birth. (Side note – I am now curious as to just what is involved in Dutch birth registration.)

In addition to maternity leave, adoption leave, and paternity leave, all parents who are caring for a child under eight years of age may take parental leave. As of January 1, 2009 Dutch parents who have been with their employer for at least a year may take up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave.

Parental leave in the Netherlands is not necessarily a complete leave from work. The norm is that you take a year of parental leave, during which you work half-time, so that you have an accumulated total of 26 weeks. However, you can 26 weeks of full-time leave, or you could take just one day off a week and spread the leave over more than a year. If you have more than one child, you can take leave for each child separately. And unlike maternity or paternity leave, parental leave can be staggered. That is, you can take a portion, and return to work for a period. Or you can change your working and leave hours.

I was surprised that new parents in the Netherlands don’t receive that much leave compared to other EU countries (I’m looking at you, Sweden), and that most of it is unpaid. Because of the reputation the Dutch have for excellent maternity care, I expected their leaves would be very generous. Although prior to this year parental leave was only 13 weeks, so they are taking steps to improve it. Hopefully that trend will continue and more family friendly policies will take hold in the Netherlands.