8-week parental leave: this is the current situation following Royal Decree-Law 9/2025

 

This regulation introduces relevant adjustments that directly affect companies, as it redefines the management of birth, childcare, and parental care leaves, incorporating new organizational obligations.

Paid leave: extension to 19 weeks

The European Directive required that at least eight weeks of parental leave be paid.

Spain already partially covered this requirement with the five weeks of leave derived from birth and accumulated breastfeeding.

To complete the eight weeks required, Royal Decree-Law 9/2025 extends the birth and childcare leave by three weeks, reaching a total of 19 weeks of contract suspension for each parent, adopter, or foster parent.

These 19 weeks are paid at 100% of the regulatory base, with the following enjoyment scheme:

6 mandatory and uninterrupted weeks, full-time, immediately following birth or judicial/administrative resolution.

11 flexible weeks, which can be taken accumulated or interrupted in weekly periods until the child reaches 12 months.

2 weeks of flexible parental care, accumulable or interrupted until the child turns 8 years old.

This last stage is one of the key novelties of the new framework, as it completes the paid transposition required by the European Directive.

8-week unpaid parental leave

Alongside the paid leave, the 8-week unpaid parental leave introduced initially by Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 is maintained.

Nature: unpaid.

Enjoyment: can be taken accumulated or interrupted in weeks, until the child turns 8 years old.

In the case of civil servants, article 49. g of the Basic Statute of Public Employees (EBEP) maintains this same regulation: 8 unpaid weeks, which can be enjoyed under the same terms.

Single-parent families

The new Royal Decree-Law introduces a specific extension for single-parent families:

the total period of contract suspension for birth or adoption will be 32 weeks.

This duration includes:

22 weeks of flexible enjoyment up to the 12 months of the child.

4 additional weeks of parental care up to 8 years.

In addition, retroactivity is established from August 2, 2024 for the two weeks of parental care that can be enjoyed up to the child's eight years of age.

Flexibility and agreement with the company

The flexible leave weeks (both the 11 or 22 for birth/adoption and the 2 or 4 for parental care) can be taken on a full-time or part-time basis, always subject to agreement between the company and the employee.

For companies, this framework reinforces the need to formalize the management of leaves and adjust work schedules to ensure coverage and regulatory compliance.

The new 8-week parental leave, together with the extension of the birth leave, consolidates a broader and more balanced model of work-life balance.
Companies must adapt their internal policies, anticipate absences, and review their labor management protocols to ensure compliance with Royal Decree-Law 9/2025.