Parental leave in Denmark is becoming more evenly distributed, with privately employed fathers in a new trade union analysis taking an average of 15.2 weeks, up from 12.7 weeks in 2023. However, women still take considerably longer leave, while access to full pay continues to depend on contracts, employers and length of service.
The findings come from an analysis published by the Danish trade union Djøf on 2 August, four years after Denmark introduced non-transferable parental leave for both employed parents.
The analysis covers Djøf members working in the private sector. Its results should therefore not be read as representative of all employees or families in Denmark.
Fathers are using more parental leave in Denmark
According to Djøf, the average leave taken by privately employed fathers in its survey has increased by 2.5 weeks since 2023. Women included in the analysis continue to take an average of 33.5 weeks.
The change follows the parental leave rules introduced for children born from 2 August 2022. Under the current system, each employed parent generally receives 24 weeks of leave with parental benefits.
Of these, 11 weeks are reserved for each employed parent and cannot normally be transferred. The remaining 13 weeks may be transferred to the other parent. Reserved weeks that are not used generally expire.
The legislation regulates entitlement to leave and public parental benefits. It does not automatically guarantee that an employee will continue receiving their normal salary. According to the Ministry of Employment (Beskæftigelsesministeriet), the right to pay during leave is usually determined through a collective agreement or an individual employment contract.
Djøf president Sara Vergo said the longer leave taken by fathers showed that more men were using the rights introduced in 2022. She argued that this could allow children to develop a closer relationship with both parents from the beginning.
Paid leave still depends on the workplace
The Djøf analysis indicates that access to paid parental leave has also improved for some fathers. Among men whose conditions are better than the minimum provisions of the Salaried Employees Act (Funktionærloven), the average entitlement to full pay increased from 12 weeks in 2021 to 20 weeks in 2025.
Women in the same group were entitled to an average of 25 weeks on full pay, unchanged from 2021.
Conditions remain substantially less favourable for other employees. Djøf found that 17 percent of the privately employed men in its analysis were covered only by the Salaried Employees Act and therefore had no separate contractual entitlement to salary during parental leave.
The equivalent share among women was 11 percent. Under the statutory provisions referred to by Djøf, these women are entitled to half pay for part of their leave.
Parents without full salary coverage may still qualify for public parental benefits administered by Udbetaling Danmark. The official English-language information service Life in Denmark explains that eligibility depends on a person’s employment status and connection to the labour market.
Seniority requirements can discourage changing jobs
Djøf also identified seniority requirements as an obstacle to equal access. Among employees with conditions exceeding the statutory minimum, 26 percent of men and 19 percent of women had to work for their employer for a specified period before becoming entitled to pay during parental leave.
The union argues that these requirements can reduce labour mobility by discouraging people planning to have children from changing jobs. A new employee could otherwise lose access to paid leave even when performing similar work under the same employer.
“Parental leave should not be treated as an employee benefit that people must earn,” Vergo said, calling for seniority requirements to be removed.
Djøf is campaigning on the issue through the Parental Leave Alliance (Barselsalliancen), together with the unions IDA and DM and the think tank EQUALIS (Tænketanken EQUALIS).
The figures suggest that Denmark’s reserved leave system is gradually changing how parents divide time away from work. The continuing gap between fathers’ and mothers’ leave nevertheless shows that legal entitlement alone does not determine how leave is used. Salary coverage and contractual conditions remain central to whether families can afford a more equal division.
