Parental Leave in Sweden -- how it works

When we first moved to Sweden, we discovered that we qualified for government paid parental leave since Calvin had not yet turned 8 years old.  Jon took 6 weeks off and loved every minute of it.  You can read about the time he took here.

In comparison to US unpaid maternity leave (most dads never take any leave whatsoever), we view Sweden's policy as extremely generous.

Side note: only 3 countries in the world offer 12 weeks of unpaid leave

• United States
• Swaziland
• Lesotho

Swedes are very good at taking advantage of the system and some families can leverage the timing of the births of their children to take up to 3-5 consecutive years off from work, all paid.  

All of these numbers are going to get confusing and fortunately, Forsakringskassan.se provides you an easy calculator where you can put in your salary, time off and it'll automatically calculate all of the benefits for which you qualify.  All of this information, filling out forms to apply for parental leave is available here http://www.forsakringskassan.se/.

Breakdown of the Swedish parental leave

• 480 days to split between the two parents (no need to be married, just biological or adoptive parents)
• Dads get 10 days of "free" parental leave when the baby is born -- must be used within 60 days after baby arrives home from the hospital
• Equality bonus if you split the time down the middle of an extra tax-free $240/month
• The "minority" parent (generally the dads) must use at least 60 days before the child turns 8 years old
• Many Swedish companies "top up" base government pay up to 90% of your salary for x months (generally 6 months) if used before the child turns 1.5 years old
• You can choose to get paid 1 day/week, 2 days/week...7 days/week.
• You also get Barnbidrag - a child allowance of 1050 SEK/month ($164/month)

How to maximize your time off

• Since you are paid on a daily basis, holidays do not count towards your parental leave. They are holidays and those days add up...
• The less days you get paid each week, the longer you stretch out your time
• So, if you take 1 month of time and choose to get paid 3 days/week, this turns into 1 month  and 16 days of time off from work. Multiply that by 6 months of leave and you have effectively transformed your 6 months of leave into 9 months off of work! Well done!  You have to be good at budgeting your funds, but if you have a working partner, you can scrimp and save and enjoy that time off with your baby (now toddler).
• Take your time off when your employer "tops up" -- that means before your kid turns 18 months old. 
• Save some days and add them to your 33 days of vacation each year.  This is how many Swedes take 1-2 months off each year without batting an eye.

How all of this affects us

• I work on a contract for a US company so I qualify for absolutely no US maternity leave but I DO qualify for the base pay of Swedish parental leave.  I'll take that $15/day thank you very much!
• My US income goes straight to our US bank account to fund our mortgage, HOA fees, and student loans. My income is necessary and I can't go unpaid for too long.
• Fortunately I work from home, so it should still be a low-stress work environment for me. No need for a nanny or a commute to daycare this time around.
• Jon's company will top up for 6 months and I can donate all but 60 days of my time to him (I'll be the minority parent in this situation).  Since he has heavily taxed Swedish income, we will be getting the most bang for our buck by leveraging the government-paid leave (80% of his salary up to a maxed out cap) for 180 days.
• Kids in Sweden don't start daycare until they are 12-18 months old, so I really do need Jon on hand to take care of Baby #2.  I plan on taking off 3 months of unpaid leave but our US bank account can't float for too long. 

I may have missed some details and my Swedish friends can enlighten us further on how to best leverage this unique opportunity.  Jon is going to take as much time as possible because let's face it, when will we ever be in this position again?  If he didn't take time, that would be a disservice to our children.  What is better for our kids than to have both parents at home, on hand to dote, play and laugh with them?  Also, Jon gets to try out the open preschools and learn all of those Swedish nursery rhymes.  I'm excited for him to experience a bit of what I first went through with Calvin when we first moved here.

My only concern is that Jon will love his parental leave too much and convince me to keep expanding our family beyond our original plan of 2 kids. One at a time...one at a time.  But I can't blame him - who wouldn't want endless time with your baby?  

Calvin at 5 weeks