<aside> đź’ˇ You have a right to parental leave if you become a parent, through birth or adoption. If you are pregnant, you have the right to parental leave before the birth as well. Two partners having a child together are both entitled to leave.

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Parental leave is often connected to the birth or adoption of a child, but there are other situations where you may be entitled to leave as a parent, such as to care for a sick child (a benefit called Vård Av Barn or more commonly vab in Swedish). The administration staff or HR office can most likely help you with instructions on how to report parental leave with your employer.

If you are employed, you get payment while on leave, in the form of parental benefits, from Försäkringskassan. The number of parental benefits days when having a child is regulated per child – parents can divide the days. A certain number of days is reserved for each parent and cannot be transferred to the other. For 390 days, you have benefits based on your income; for an additional 90 days you have what is called minimum level benefits. You can also get benefits if you take leave in order to care for a sick child. You should report the leave as soon as possible to Försäkringkassa. Here is their page regarding parents, where you can find information about your rights, the benefits, and how to register parental leave.

You should keep in mind that you might be required to have worked a certain amount of time to be eligible for full parental leave benefits.

If you are financed through a scholarship, you get compensation through the Health and parental insurance for doctoral students with stipends, where The Legal, Financial and Administrative Services Agency (Kammarkollegiet), is the insurer.  This insurance applies to doctoral students who don’t have equivalent insurance from another source. You can consult the terms of the insurance on the agency’s website, here. You can also ask the HR department or administrative staff at your institution about this insurance.

You should keep in mind that you are able to receive prolongation of your doctoral studies due to parental leave – it is important from this point of view that you report the leave to your employer  as soon as possible. If any issues arise with parental leave, you can ask your student union, the ombud for doctoral students, or your trade union, for help.

Source: Parental leave - PhD handbook

Different types of parental leave under The Parental Leave Act & salaries during parental leave

  1. maternity leave in connection with the birth of her child,
  2. full-time leave until the child is 18 months of age,
  3. part-time leave with parental benefit,
  4. leave in the form of a reduction of normal working hours by one quarter (25%) until the child is 8 years of age,
  5. leave for an employee’s temporary care of a child.

Parental leave can be taken as 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% or 12.5%. A reduction of working hours by 25% applies to full-time employees. The employee must notify the employer no later than two months before the leave, or, if unable to do so, as soon as possible.

Leave may be divided into a maximum of three periods for each calendar year. As regards a temporary care of a child, the leave notification must be submitted one week prior to the leave. A leave resulting from sickness or infection has no notification period.

Partial parental leave in addition to the Parental Leave Act

In addition to the Parental Leave Act, state employees can be granted reduction of working hours – partial parental leave – according to the Leave Regulations to care for children – until the end of the school year the child turns 12 years of age. In this context, school year means the period from the start of an autumn semester one year to the start of the autumn semester the next year.