Nav­i­gat­ing Parental Leave in Fin­land 

Parental leave may look dif­fer­ent in Fin­land com­pared with what many peo­ple are used to in oth­er coun­tries, and when you move some­where new it’s impor­tant to under­stand what kinds of ben­e­fits and sup­port you are enti­tled to.

To help make things eas­i­er, we’ve put togeth­er a quick guide to parental leave and parental allowance in Fin­land. 

Parental Leave Basics 

Parental leave in Fin­land is avail­able to any par­ent wel­com­ing a new child into their fam­i­ly, whether the child is born or adopt­ed. Your fam­i­ly struc­ture does not affect your right to take leave as the sys­tem is designed to sup­port all par­ents. 

Dur­ing this peri­od, you are enti­tled to receive parental allowance, which pro­vides finan­cial sup­port while you care for your child. 

Parental Allowance 

The amount of parental allowance you receive depends on your annu­al income. You can esti­mate your allowance using Kela’s cal­cu­la­tor.

If you have lit­tle or no income, you may receive the min­i­mum rate of parental allowance, which, at the time of writ­ing, is 31.99€ per work­ing day. 

Par­ents can receive parental allowance for a total of 320 work­ing days. Work­ing days in Fin­land include Mon­day to Sat­ur­day. If a child has two par­ents, each par­ent is enti­tled to half of the parental allowance days — 160 work­ing days each. How­ev­er, par­ents can choose to trans­fer up to 63 work­ing days to the oth­er par­ent, allow­ing fam­i­lies to share leave in a way that suits them best. Par­ents can also take up to 18 work­ing days at the same time while car­ing for the same child, allow­ing for a short peri­od of shared leave. 

You do not have to take the parental leave all in one go and can decide (along with agree­ment from your employ­er) to take the leave at any time before the child turns 2, or before the 2‑year anniver­sary of when the adopt­ed child was placed in your care. 

Par­tial Parental Allowance 

Par­tial parental allowance is avail­able if you work part‑time and care for your child for part of the day. To qual­i­fy, your dai­ly work­ing time must be no more than five hours. Each day you work five hours or less and receive par­tial parental allowance counts as half a parental leave day, reduc­ing your total num­ber of days accord­ing­ly. 

To take par­tial parental allowance, you must have an agree­ment with your employ­er about adjust­ing your work­ing hours. This ensures your part‑time sched­ule is for­mal­ly recog­nised and com­pat­i­ble with the allowance. 

Spe­cial Sit­u­a­tions 

Finland’s parental leave sys­tem includes extra sup­port for fam­i­lies in par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances. Below are some of the most com­mon sit­u­a­tions where your enti­tle­ment may change. 

• Mul­ti­ple‑birth fam­i­lies: When a fam­i­ly wel­comes twins or triplets, the num­ber of parental allowance days increas­es. For twins, parental allowance is paid for 404 work­ing days (320 + 84). For triplets, the enti­tle­ment ris­es to 488 work­ing days (320 + 84 + 84). These addi­tion­al days are split between both par­ents in the same way as stan­dard enti­tle­ment days. 
• Sin­gle‑par­ent fam­i­lies: If only one par­ent is enti­tled to parental allowance, they may use the full 320 days them­selves. This may apply if the oth­er par­ent has not been con­firmed, is not the child’s legal guardian, is not insured under the Finnish Health Insur­ance Act, or is unable to care for the child due to a long‑term ill­ness or injury. 
• Pre­ma­ture births: If your baby is born more than 30 work­ing days before the expect­ed due date, your parental allowance peri­od can be extend­ed. 
• Work­ing dur­ing parental leave: Parental allowance is not paid for week­days when you work full‑time. How­ev­er, you may work on Sun­days or mid­week pub­lic hol­i­days with­out affect­ing your allowance. 
• Study­ing and parental leave: If eli­gi­ble, you can receive stu­dent finan­cial aid and parental allowance at the same time. 

There are addi­tion­al sit­u­a­tions that may affect your parental leave or allowance enti­tle­ment. You can find more detailed infor­ma­tion on Kela’s web­site.

Mater­ni­ty Pack­age 

Anoth­er ben­e­fit avail­able to expec­tant par­ents in Fin­land is the mater­ni­ty pack­age. This mater­ni­ty grant can be tak­en either as a cash pay­ment of 210€ (at the time of writ­ing) or as the mater­ni­ty pack­age itself. The pack­age includes essen­tial baby items such as cloth­ing, blan­kets, and care prod­ucts, along with a few items for the par­ent. The box is also designed so it can be used as a safe first bed for the baby. 

Mater­ni­ty pack­ages have been offered in Fin­land since around the 1940s and most first‑time par­ents choose the pack­age over the cash ben­e­fit. Over time, it has become a sym­bol of Finland’s com­mit­ment to reduc­ing social inequal­i­ty and ensur­ing that every child, regard­less of fam­i­ly cir­cum­stances, has the same secure start in life. 

More infor­ma­tion about this can be found on the Kela web­site.

Day­care and School Guid­ance 

Once your parental leave is over, there are options to help you with child­care if you are return­ing to work. You can find more infor­ma­tion about this on our web­site.

We hope you find this guide help­ful as you explore your parental leave options in Fin­land. 

Text by: Sophie Platt