Parental Leave Regulations for Children Born on or After July 1, 2015

As of July 1, 2015, you can take parental leave until your child’s eighth birthday. In total, you are entitled to up to three years of parental leave, of which you can defer up to 24 months to a later date—specifically, to the period between your child’s third and eighth birthdays. The employer’s consent is not required for this.

The duration of parental leave is 2 years and begins on the first day of the notified parental leave. During these two years, parents must make a binding commitment regarding when and for how long they wish to take parental leave. According to this provision, changes are only possible with the employer’s consent.

You can divide your parental leave into up to three periods. If the third period falls between your child’s third and eighth birthdays, the employer may deny the request for urgent business reasons.

During parental leave, you also have the option of working part-time. An employer may also refuse to reduce working hours to 15 to 30 hours per week (for births on or after September 1, 2021: 15 to 32 hours per week) only for urgent operational reasons. For more information on part-time work during parental leave and what you need to keep in mind, please visit the family portal of the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth (BMBFSFJ).

On the BMBFSFJ’s family portal, you can also find additional important general information about parental leave here .

How to Apply for Parental Leave

You are required to notify your employer in writing no later than seven weeks before the start of your parental leave. In this letter, you must already specify the periods covering a two-year timeframe prior to the child’s third birthday (commitment period). You can find information about the commitment period here on the BMBFSFJ Family Portal. For evidentiary purposes, you should have your employer confirm your request in writing or send it by certified mail.

What should you keep in mind when returning from parental leave?

After parental leave, you are entitled to your former position—or at least an equivalent one —under the terms set forth in your employment contract. Do you work at a company with at least 16 employees and would like to work part-time in the future, with different hours than you had previously? In that case, you must notify your employer in writing no later than three months before the end of your parental leave, in accordance with the Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act (TzBfG). If operational reasons prevent the desired reduction in working hours, your employer must notify you in writing no later than one month before you are scheduled to start work. For more information, please visit the Family Portal website and the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.