Parents in France will be able to benefit from a new paid maternity leave.

Starting Wednesday, parents in France will have access to a new parental leave, a measure aimed at supporting birth rates, which have significantly decreased in recent years. This "additional parental leave" is available to both parents, whether for birth or adoption, and is added to the 16-week maternity leave and the 28-day paternity leave.

Parents can choose to take this leave simultaneously or alternately, with the option to split it into two one-month periods. The allowance will be 70% of the net salary in the first month and 60% in the second month, with a monthly cap of 4,005 euros, starting from January 1, 2026.

Announced by President Emmanuel Macron in January 2024, this leave comes in response to the declining birth rate, which has reached a historic low, with 644,000 births in 2025, nearly 25% less than in 2010, according to the National Institute of Statistics (Insee).