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High-Risk Pregnancy Leave

In Portugal a high-risk pregnancy leave is not ordinary sick leave. Enter the salary and the certified days.

The salary is the average over the reference period (the six calendar months preceding the second month before the impediment). The days are the ones the doctor certifies: for clinical risk the law sets no limit.

Benefit in total
€1,200.00
Per day
€40.00
Daily reference remuneration (salary ÷ 30)€40.00
Percentage applied (article 29)100 %
Unpaid waiting days0 days
Paid days30 days
Monthly equivalent (30 days)€1,200.00
Statutory daily minimum (80 % of 1/30 of the IAS)€14.32
Ordinary sick leave: unpaid waiting days3 days
Ordinary sick leave: first-band percentage55 %
Ordinary sick leave: what the same absence would pay€594.00
Difference in favour of the parenthood benefit€606.00

This absence pays €606.00 more than ordinary sick leave would, and the gap has two independent causes: the rate is 100 % instead of the 55 % of the first band, and the benefit starts on the first day instead of the fourth. It is not the same benefit under another name, it is a different benefit.

Article 39 starts the benefit «on the 1st day of impediment to work for which no pay is due», so the first day is paid. Under ordinary sick leave the first three days are not paid at all.

Six calendar months, consecutive or not, with registered earnings are required at the date of the impediment (article 25(1)). This calculation does not check that condition.

The benefit cannot be drawn together with employment income (article 42) and carries no Social Security contributions and no income tax, so the figures are net.

These are the contributory benefits. The SOCIAL versions, for those without a sufficient contribution record, were repealed by Decree-Law 166/2026 and are claimed as the Prestação Social Única from 31 December 2026.

It is a different benefit, not the same sick leave renamed

The most expensive confusion on this subject is treating a high-risk pregnancy as ordinary sick leave, and the law keeps them in two different diplomas. Ordinary sick leave is the subsídio de doença of Decree-Law 28/2004, and it pays a percentage that starts at 55 % and rises through duration bands. A high-risk pregnancy is the clinical-risk pregnancy benefit of the parenthood chapter, and article 29 of Decree-Law 91/2009 settles it in one sentence: the daily amount of the benefits for clinical risk during pregnancy and for termination of pregnancy is equal to 100 % of the beneficiary reference remuneration. One hundred per cent, with no bands and no uplift to apply for. On a 1,200 € salary that is 40.00 € a day instead of the 22.00 € the first ordinary band would give, and over a month of absence the gap is 606.00 €. That is why the wording of the medical certificate matters so much: what changes the amount is not the illness, it is the legal basis on which the absence is certified.

The first day is paid, and that is worth three days of salary

The second half of the gap is quieter and nobody advertises it. Article 39 of Decree-Law 91/2009 says the benefits of that chapter start on the 1st day of impediment to work for which no pay is due. There is no waiting period at all. Ordinary sick leave has three initial days that Social Security does not pay and the worker absorbs, except in cases of hospitalisation, day surgery, tuberculosis or a contagious disease. A thirty-day absence for clinical risk pays thirty days; the same absence as ordinary illness pays twenty-seven. The calculator shows both counts side by side, because added to the percentage they explain the whole difference: the rate almost doubles the value of each day, and the absence of a waiting period adds three days on top.

The daily floor is four times the ordinary one

Article 38(1) provides that the minimum daily amount of the benefits of that chapter may not be lower than 80 % of one thirtieth of the IAS, which in 2026 comes to 14.32 € a day. The sick-pay benefit has a floor of its own, but set at 30 % of the same thirtieth, that is 5.37 €. The ingredients are identical and the percentage is four times larger, and the effect shows up on low salaries and part-time careers: someone whose daily reference remuneration is 13.33 € receives 14.32 €, because the floor lifts it, not the 13.33 € that 100 % would give. Note that the floor protects an existing right rather than creating one: with no registered earnings there is no benefit, and it is the qualifying period of article 25(1), six calendar months with registered earnings, that decides that.

Duration: open for clinical risk, closed for a termination

The two situations covered by the same article 29 have opposite duration rules, and that is why this calculator has a selector. For clinical risk, article 9 grants the benefit for the period of time considered necessary to prevent the risk, medically certified and preventing the exercise of work. The law sets no limit: it can be a week or it can be the rest of the pregnancy, which is why the number of days is a field and never an assumed value. For a termination of pregnancy, article 10 does the opposite: it grants the benefit for a variable period of between 14 and 30 days. Outside that window the benefit is not due on that basis, and the calculator flags it rather than computing a figure the law does not authorise. Worth adding what stays outside in both cases: the benefit cannot be drawn together with employment income (article 42), and the initial parental leave that follows the birth is a different benefit, with its own percentages and its own calculator.

Worked example

A worker with an average salary of 1,200 € a month is prevented from working for 30 days by a certified clinical risk. The daily reference remuneration is 1,200 € ÷ 30 = 40.00 €, and article 29 requires 100 % of it, so the daily amount is 40.00 €. Because article 39 provides for no waiting period, all 30 days are paid: the benefit is 1,200.00 €, that is the full month salary. The same absence under ordinary sick leave would have three unpaid waiting days and 27 days at 55 %, that is 22.00 € a day, for a total of 594.00 €. The gap is 606.00 €, which makes the parenthood benefit pay 2.02 times the sickness one. With the same salary and 60 days of absence, the benefit is 2,400.00 € against 1,314.00 €, a gap of 1,086.00 €.

Frequently asked questions

How much does high-risk pregnancy leave pay in Portugal?
One hundred per cent of the reference remuneration, for each day of impediment. The daily reference remuneration is the average monthly salary divided by 30, so someone earning 1,200 € a month receives 40.00 € a day and 1,200.00 € over a full month of absence. Article 29 of Decree-Law 91/2009 sets that percentage for both clinical risk during pregnancy and termination of pregnancy, with no duration bands.
Does high-risk pregnancy leave have three waiting days?
It does not. Article 39 starts the benefit on the first day of impediment to work for which no pay is due, so the first day is paid. The three unpaid initial days belong to ordinary sick pay, which is a different benefit under a different diploma. Added to the 100 % rate, the absence of a waiting period is the second reason the same absence pays roughly double.
Is a high-risk pregnancy different from ordinary sick leave?
It is a different benefit. Ordinary sick leave pays 55 % for the first 30 days, 60 % from day 31 to 90, 70 % from 91 to 365 and 75 % above that, always from the fourth day. Clinical risk during pregnancy is a benefit of the parenthood regime, pays 100 % from the first day and has a daily floor four times higher. What decides is the legal basis of the medical certificate, not the duration or the diagnosis.
How long can high-risk pregnancy leave last?
As long as the doctor certifies. Article 9 grants the benefit for the period of time considered necessary to prevent the risk, without setting any limit, which means it can run until the parental leave begins. A termination of pregnancy follows another rule: article 10 grants the benefit for a variable period of between 14 and 30 days, and outside that window it is not due on that basis.
How long do I need to have contributed?
Six calendar months, consecutive or not, with registered earnings at the date of the impediment, under article 25(1). Paragraph 2 allows the month of the event itself to count if there are registered earnings in it. It is an eligibility condition and does not enter this calculation: the calculator shows what the benefit is worth, not whether the right exists.
What changes in 2027 for these benefits?
The social version changes, not this one. Decree-Law 166/2026 repealed chapter iii of Decree-Law 91/2009, where the social parenthood benefits lived, among them the social clinical-risk and social termination benefits, and folded them into the Prestação Social Única from 31 December 2026. The contributory benefits this calculator works out keep the same rules.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: 2026-09-03