Maternity and paternity leave in Denmark: What EOR employers must know

The pregnant employee is entitled to 4 weeks of leave before the expected date of birth (graviditet orlov). Where pregnancy renders her unable to work earlier, full salary applies under Funktionærloven §7(3) rather than half pay.

After birth, the mother is entitled to 10 weeks of maternity leave. The first 2 weeks immediately after birth are mandatory and cannot be transferred. The remaining 8 weeks may be transferred to the father or co-mother, although in practice, most mothers use all 10 themselves.

After birth, the mother’s leave is structured across multiple categories:

• 2 weeks of earmarked maternity leave
• 8 weeks of transferable maternity leave
• 9 weeks of earmarked parental leave
• 5 weeks of parental leave that can either be transferred or postponed

Statutory pay during leave runs through two parallel channels. Udbetaling Danmark pays barselsdagpenge calculated on the employee’s hourly wage and weekly hours, capped at DKK 5,085 per week in 2026 (DKK 137.43 per hour over a 37-hour week). The benefit is taxable income and continues throughout the dagpenge-funded leave period.

Independently, Funktionærloven §7(2) entitles every female salaried employee to half her salary from the start of maternity leave until 14 weeks after birth, a window of up to 18 weeks. The employer recovers barselsdagpenge from Udbetaling Danmark by reimbursement, so the net cost is the difference between half salary and the dagpenge cap. For mid-to-high earners, this difference is a real and recurring expense. There is no equivalent statutory half-pay rule for fathers or co-mothers.

Most Danish employees in CBA-bound sectors receive full pay for considerably longer. Under the Finansforbundet/FA agreement, mothers receive full pay for up to 30 weeks. Under HK retail/commerce agreements, salary continues for up to 40 of the 52 leave weeks.

Where a child is stillborn after week 22 of pregnancy or dies before age 18, both parents are entitled to up to 26 weeks of bereavement leave (sorgorlov) with barselsdagpenge under §13b of Barselsloven. Sorgorlov runs in addition to any maternity or paternity leave already taken and begins the first day after the child’s death. The qualifying criteria for sorgorlov dagpenge were eased on 1 July 2025.

For premature births, dagpenge-funded leave continues at full duration. The most significant recent change applies to hospitalised newborns: from 1 January 2026, each parent of a child born or adopted from that date is entitled to up to 12 months of additional leave when the child is hospitalised or receiving early home care, replacing the previous combined three-month maximum.

Ligebehandlingsloven §9 prohibits dismissal because of pregnancy, pregnancy-related absence, maternity, paternity, parental, or adoption leave. The procedural rule is decisive: if an employee is dismissed during pregnancy or leave, the burden of proof reverses. The employer must affirmatively prove the dismissal was unrelated to pregnancy or leave, an extremely high standard in practice. The Danish Supreme Court has confirmed that the reversed burden applies even where the dismissal decision is communicated only after the leave ends.

Recent compensation benchmarks sit around DKK 150,000 (approximately six months’ salary), and there is no statutory cap on Ligebehandlingsloven awards. The Ligebehandlingsnævnet (Equal Treatment Board) can adjudicate these claims without formal court proceedings. Annual leave continues to accrue throughout paid maternity leave under Ferieloven, so employees returning from extended leave often have substantial accrued holiday entitlements.

Statutory pay during paternity and parental leave runs entirely through barselsdagpenge at the same DKK 5,085 weekly cap (2026 rate). There is no Funktionærloven §7 equivalent for fathers, so unless a CBA or contract provides otherwise, the dagpenge cap is the entire statutory floor.

CBA-driven top-ups have moved aggressively in recent rounds. Under the Finansforbundet/FA agreement, fathers and co-mothers in the financial sector receive up to 26 weeks at full pay (up from 16 weeks in 2023). Under HK’s June 2025 agreements, retail and commerce fathers are entitled to full salary for up to 19 weeks post-birth. Industrial sector employees under DA-CO Industri have seen progressive extensions of fully paid paternity leave.

A co-mother (medmor) is the female partner of the birth mother in a female same-sex relationship and is treated identically to a father under Barselsloven. From 1 January 2024, the Act formally extends rights to social parents, allowing legal parents to transfer their transferable leave weeks to up to two additional parents. This makes Denmark the first country to permit shared parental leave between up to four parents, primarily benefiting rainbow families.

Take-up data underscores how quickly the cultural expectation has shifted. By July 2025, 24,144 Danish men were receiving barselsdagpenge, close to a 60% increase compared to July 2022, shortly before the earmarking rules took effect. The father’s share of total parental leave roughly doubled after the reform, rising from approximately 12.5% to around 20% according to CBS research.

Solo parents are entitled to 46 weeks of forældreorlov: their own 24-week allocation plus the 13 transferable weeks (which they retain), with up to 9 additional weeks where they hold sole custody before the child’s first birthday. Solo parents may transfer part of their leave to a close family member (nærtstående familiemedlem). For solo fathers using a foreign surrogate, up to 22 additional weeks may be granted.

For rainbow families, legal parents can transfer their transferable weeks to social parents, defined as the legal parent’s spouse, registered partner, cohabiting partner of at least 2 years, or known donor with a parental relationship to the child. Up to four parents may share leave under this framework.

Forældreorlov offers flexibility in how leave is used after the initial post-birth period. Parents may:

• Take leave continuously in one block
• Split leave into multiple periods by agreement with the employer
• Extend leave by working part-time and spreading barselsdagpenge across a longer period, such as using a 32-week allocation at a reduced payment rate
• Postpone part of the leave until later in childhood

Under the statutory rules, up to 5 weeks can generally be postponed until the child turns 9. With employer agreement, a larger portion of leave, typically between 8 and 13 weeks, may also be deferred. However, parents cannot combine leave extension and leave postponement within the same leave arrangement.

Notice obligations sit on the employee, but matter operationally for the employer:

• Pregnancy notification: No later than 3 months before the expected due date
• Father’s leave in the first 10 weeks: At least 4 weeks before the expected start
• Both parents leave beyond the first 10 weeks: Within 6 weeks of birth
• Postponed leave start: At least 8 weeks before the start

Once the employee notifies, the employer must report leave to Udbetaling Danmark via Virk.dk portal and apply for any reimbursement within 8 weeks of salary payments ceasing. Missed deadlines mean lost reimbursement entitlement.

All Danish employers must contribute to an approved maternity equalisation fund for employees aged 18 and over.

DA Barsel

DA Barsel mainly covers employers operating under collective agreements linked to the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA). The fund reimburses employers for parental leave salary top-ups paid under collective bargaining agreements.

Key points include:

• Standard service requirement: 9 months of employment (6 months in some DI sectors)
• From 1 June 2025, reimbursement extends to 26 weeks of shared parental leave under relevant DA agreements
• Maximum reimbursement reaches DKK 240.35 per hour, where the hourly wage is at least DKK 213.64

Barsel.dk

Barsel.dk acts as the default maternity fund for private-sector employers outside sector-specific schemes.

Additional details:

• Self-employed workers have been included since January 2021
• The 2025 annual contribution for self-employed persons is DKK 1,550
• Separate fund structures also exist across the financial sector, public sector, and DA-CO Industri agreements

For Employers of Record, fund participation matters operationally. Employers outside the correct fund structure may absorb parental leave salary top-ups without reimbursement, which can become a meaningful employment cost.

Barselsdagpenge is fully taxable income and remains subject to:

• Standard income tax (A-skat)
• Labour market contribution (AM-bidrag) at 8%

Where Udbetaling Danmark pays the employee directly, the benefit is paid net of these deductions. Where the employer continues salary, the payment flows through normal payroll before reimbursement is reclaimed.

ATP pension contributions during leave are generally calculated on the barselsdagpenge payment unless the employer continues paying salary. Under many collective agreements, full pension contributions continue even during dagpenge-funded leave, which is a frequent payroll coordination issue for international employers and EOR providers.

Adoptive parents broadly receive the same parental leave rights as biological parents under Barselsloven. The pre-adoption entitlement depends on whether the adoption is domestic or international:

• Domestic adoption: Up to 1 week before receiving the child, extendable by 1 additional week
• International adoption: Up to 4 weeks before receiving the child, extendable by 4 additional weeks

During the first 10 weeks after receiving the child:

• Both adoptive parents may each take 6 weeks of leave
• Only 2 of those weeks may be taken simultaneously

After the initial 10-week period, each adoptive parent receives the standard 24-week parental leave entitlement, including 11 earmarked weeks. Where possible, employees should provide around 3 months’ notice of the expected child reception date.

The child’s first and second sick days (barns 1. og 2. sygedag) are not statutory entitlements in the Danish private sector. In practice, however, they are extremely common through collective agreements. Employers operating outside collective agreements often address sick child leave contractually to align with Danish market expectations.

A major reform took effect on 1 May 2024 for parents of twins and other multiple births.

Each parent now receives:

• 13 additional weeks of barselsdagpenge
• A total leave entitlement of 37 weeks per parent

Key rules include:

• The additional 13 weeks are non-transferable between legal parents
• In some rainbow family structures, the weeks may transfer to a social parent
• The additional leave must be used within 12 months of birth
• The extra weeks cannot be postponed or deferred

Single parents of twins receive 46 standard weeks plus an additional 13 weeks.

Public-sector employers and employers covered by collective agreements are generally required to continue salary during these additional weeks. Employers outside collective agreements are only required to do so where the employment contract provides for it.

Under §13b of Barselsloven, both parents may qualify for up to 26 weeks of bereavement leave with barselsdagpenge:

• Following a stillbirth from week 22 of pregnancy onwards
• Following the death of a child under 18 years old

Bereavement leave begins on the first day after the loss and applies in addition to leave already taken. From 1 July 2025, Denmark also eased the qualifying rules for parents who had previously received compensation while caring for a seriously ill child at home.