Extended parental leave in Portugal: the five options and what each pays

The second leave, the one almost nobody knows about

Almost every conversation about parenthood in Portugal stops at the initial parental leave: the 120, 150 or 180 days after the birth, with their percentages and the sharing between parents. But the Labour Code provides for a second, longer leave, which begins where the first ends and runs until the child turns six. It is called complementary parental leave, and article 51(1) gives both the father and the mother the right to take it for the care of a child or adopted child under six, in any of five options¹.

There are five, and choosing between them is a money decision as large as the one on the initial leave. The gap between the best and the worst, on an average salary, reaches 600 € a month. And, contrary to what you might assume, the option that pays most is not the one with the highest percentage.

The five options, as the law writes them

Paragraph 1 of article 51 lists them by points, and it is worth reading them in their original form because every word counts¹:

• a) extended parental leave, for three months
• b) part-time work for 12 months, with normal working time equal to half of full time
• c) part-time work for three months, with normal working time equal to half of full time, provided the leave is taken in full by each of the parents
• d) alternating periods of extended parental leave and part-time work, where the total duration of the absence and the reduction of working time equals three months of normal working time
• e) interpolated absences from work of the same total duration, provided they are set out in a collective labour agreement

Note that every option amounts to three months of lost work, except option b), which stretches the same effort across twelve months of half-time. Paragraph 2 allows any of them to be taken continuously or in up to three separate periods, and expressly forbids one parent from taking the other's entitlement: the right belongs to each of them. Paragraph 5 requires written notice to the employer 30 days before it starts, stating the option and the dates.

Only three of the five are paid

Here is the point that changes the decision and that rarely makes it into summaries. The right to the leave sits in the Labour Code; the right to the money sits in a different diploma. And the two lists do not match.

Article 16 of Decree-Law 91/2009, as amended by Decree-Law 53/2023, grants the extended parental benefit "for a period of up to three months to either or both parents, simultaneously or alternately, where extended parental leave is taken under points a), c) and d) of article 51(1) of the Labour Code"².

Read the list slowly: a), c) and d). Two are missing. Options b) and e).

The consequence is harsh and counter-intuitive. Option b) is the longest of the five, twelve months, and Social Security pays absolutely nothing for it. Whoever chooses it keeps the right to reduced hours and to job protection, but is left with half a salary for a full year. Option e), besides carrying no benefit, also depends on being provided for in the sector's collective agreement, which makes it non-existent for most workers.

Note the time limit too: even in the three options that are paid, the benefit runs for a period of up to three months. Option b) would last twelve; none of them receives the benefit for longer than three.

Thirty, forty or twenty per cent, and it used to be twenty-five

Article 33 of Decree-Law 91/2009 now has three paragraphs²:

• paragraph 1: the daily extended parental benefit is 30 % of the beneficiary's reference remuneration
• paragraph 2: in the situations of article 16, where each parent takes the full extended parental leave, the daily amount is 40 % of the beneficiary's reference remuneration
• paragraph 3: where the parent takes the leave under point c) of article 51(1) of the Labour Code, the daily amount is 20 % of the reference remuneration

It is worth knowing where this comes from, because it explains why so much published guidance is wrong. The original wording of the article, published in 2009, was a single sentence setting the daily extended parental benefit at 25 % of the reference remuneration³. Decree-Law 53/2023 replaced it with this three-rate structure. Guides written before July 2023, and many written since, still quote the 25 %.

One note of honesty about how we read paragraph 2: it does not name the options it reaches. We apply the 40 % only to option a), the one the law itself calls extended parental leave; option c) has its own express rate in paragraph 3 and option d) stays at the 30 % default. That is also the conservative reading, the one that never overstates the benefit.

The finding: half-time pays more than full leave

Combine the rate with one rule on stacking and the ranking inverts.

Article 42, as amended by the same Decree-Law 53/2023, says the benefits in that chapter cannot be combined with employment income, "with the exception of the following situations", and point b) of that exception is the extended parental benefit taken under points c) and d) of article 51(1) of the Labour Code².

So under options c) and d) the parent draws the benefit and the part-time wage at the same time.

Run the numbers on a salary of 1 500 € a month, which gives a daily reference remuneration of 50.00 €:

Option c) pays 600 € a month more than option a), for the same three months. Over the period that is 3 150 € against 1 350 €, a difference of 1 800 €. And it is the option that looks least generous at first glance, because it carries the lower of the two percentages. The lower percentage is applied to a base that adds to a salary, and that is what decides it.

There is a cost on the other side that the table does not show and that needs saying: under option c) you are working, and the legal condition is demanding: the leave must be taken in full by each of the parents. It is not a choice one parent can make alone; it depends on the other doing the same.

The reference remuneration and the 7.16 € floor

The percentage does not apply to the salary; it applies to the reference remuneration. Article 28(1) of Decree-Law 91/2009 defines it as R/180, where R is the total of the remunerations recorded in the first six calendar months preceding the second month before the qualifying event³. On a stable salary that is the monthly salary divided by 30, because the six months are counted without the holiday and Christmas bonuses. It is exactly the same base as the initial parental benefit.

Then there is a floor, and it must not be swapped for the initial benefit's. Article 38 has two paragraphs that say different things: paragraph 1 protects the chapter's benefits at 80 % of a thirtieth of the IAS, but paragraph 2 is specific: the daily minimum extended parental benefit cannot be lower than 40 % of a thirtieth of the IAS³. With the 2026 IAS at 537.13 €, this leave's floor is 7.16 € a day and the initial benefit's is 14.32 €. Confusing them doubles the figure.

The floor bites below roughly 716 € of salary at the 30 % rate. But under option c), because the rate is 20 %, it already bites below roughly 1 074 €, which means it reaches anyone on the minimum wage. On a 920 € salary, 20 % would give 6.13 € a day and the benefit rises to the legal 7.16 €.

What is left out, and why

Two options have no fixed value, and we would rather say so than invent a number. Under option d), the split between leave and part-time work is agreed with the employer, subject only to the rule that it adds up to the equivalent of three months of work; the benefit is determined, 30 % of the reference remuneration, but the salary depends on how long is spent in each arrangement. Under option e), besides there being no benefit, the option exists only if the collective agreement provides for it.

Also out of scope is the leave that comes after this one, and which is the biggest source of confusion. Article 52(1) says that once the right in the previous article is exhausted, parents are entitled to leave for child care, continuously or in separate periods, up to a limit of two years¹. Two years is far more than three months, but that leave is not paid by Social Security. The extended parental leave of article 51 is the last one that can bring money.

Finally, the tax boundary, because it changes what is net. The benefit carries no income tax and no Social Security contribution. The half salary that continues under options b), c) and d) is ordinary category-A income: it carries the 11 % Social Security contribution and whatever withholding applies. The figures on this page, and in the calculator, are gross.

How to decide

If the aim is to maximise income and the other parent is willing to do the same, option c) is almost always the best-paying: half-time for three months, with the benefit stacking on top of the salary. If the aim is to be fully present for three months, option a) is the only one that allows it with any support, and it is worth making sure that both parents take the full leave so the rate rises from 30 % to 40 %. And if the aim is to stretch that presence across a year, option b) achieves it, but it is worth going in knowing that it brings not a single euro from Social Security.

The calculator on this page runs all five at once from your own salary, so the choice is made on numbers rather than on names.