In this article
"They're going on parental leave soon" lands like a message you receive, not a right you were already supposed to know. Seven numbers from the EU directive behind it — and what it actually costs to keep that shift covered.
Sometime this year, almost every independent restaurant gets this message: a member of staff is becoming a parent, or suddenly needs to care for a sick relative. The conversation usually goes straight to the rota — who takes the shift, for how long, and what you pay for it. It rarely goes to what sits underneath that conversation: most owners know their own sector agreement, but not the EU floor it's built on top of.
That floor has existed since 2019: the EU Work-Life Balance Directive (2019/1158), transposed into every member state's own law since August 2022. It gives every employee — regardless of the size of the employer, there is no small-business carve-out — a right to paternity leave, parental leave and carers' leave. Not a perk a good employer happens to offer: a minimum every member state must guarantee at least.
For a kitchen with a fixed number of hands on a fixed number of stations, that is not a small thing. One employee who can be gone for up to four months means someone else on that station for four months — and who pays for that is less simple than it sounds. Part of that leave carries a guaranteed EU pay floor; another part can legally be entirely unpaid. The gap between those two is exactly where most owners get caught out.
This article works through the seven numbers that together decide who is entitled to what, for how long, and how much of it has to be paid. Along the way sits a calculator that turns those numbers into what it costs you to keep the shift covered — replacement included.
Why this is more than a rota problem
The easy answer is "we'll figure it out when it happens". The problem is that the directive doesn't just create a right to be absent — it also creates a right to return to the same job and protection from dismissal connected to taking the leave. A restaurant that doesn't know that right risks more than an empty station: it risks a dispute over how that absence was handled, long after the shift is covered again.
The more expensive gap is in what a member state actually has to pay. The directive sets a guaranteed EU pay floor for only part of parental leave — the rest can legally stay unpaid, unless the country or sector agreement goes further. An owner who assumes "the state pays for that anyway" sometimes only finds out at the first payslip after the birth that part of that bill lands on the employee — or, depending on the local agreement, on the restaurant itself.
Worth saying upfront: this is a house document, not legal advice. The EU directive sets a floor, but the exact transposition — how much is paid, by whom, and up to what age of the child — varies significantly by member state and by sector agreement. The numbers below are the EU floor itself, verified against the directive text; always check your own national law for the exact amount and exact timelines.
The 7 numbers
Every number below comes straight from the text of Directive (EU) 2019/1158. Together they decide not just how long someone can be gone, but who actually foots the bill for it.
1. 10 working days of paid paternity leave, around the birth
The second parent — usually the partner of whoever gives birth — has the right to at least 10 working days of leave around the birth of the child, paid at least at the level of national sick pay. That's the shortest of the three leaves in this article, but also the one most likely to land on your rota fastest and least predictably: a birth doesn't always give you three months' notice.
Ten working days is the EU floor, not a ceiling. Several member states grant more, and some sector agreements add a day or two on top of the statutory minimum. Check your own national rules for the exact number and exact pay level — the directive only guarantees the minimum.
2. 4 months of parental leave, per parent, per child
Every parent has an individual right to four months of parental leave per child — a right that belongs to the person, not to the household. Two parents who both work at your restaurant each have their own separate four-month entitlement, not four months to split between them.
That turns "covering one station temporarily" into "covering two stations at once" very concretely when both parents work for you. The directive lets member states tie the right to a minimum length of service, but not remove it outright.
3. 2 of those 4 months are non-transferable
Of the four months, two per parent cannot be transferred to the other parent — use them, or lose them. That "use it or lose it" rule is deliberate: a transferable entitlement is, in practice, almost always taken by one parent alone, and these two non-transferable months are the directive's attempt to break that pattern.
For a kitchen, that means you can't count on "the other parent will just take it instead" — each parent holds their own, separately protected block of leave, and both can genuinely take it, whatever the restaurant might prefer.
4. 5 working days a year of paid carers' leave
Separate from paternity and parental leave, the directive gives every employee the right to 5 working days of carers' leave a year, to support a relative or household member with a serious medical condition. It's the one leave of the three that has nothing to do with a birth, and it's also the least predictable — a hospital admission doesn't send a save-the-date.
Five days is short enough to absorb with the existing team, but it resets every year — an employee who uses the full amount every year is, structurally, five days a year short, not just once.
The real, directive-defined working-day counts — carers' leave, paternity leave, the non-transferable chunk and the full parental entitlement, side by side.
Figured at roughly 21.75 working days per month to convert months into days — member states that count natively in months or weeks may land slightly differently.
5. Up to age 8: the age threshold member states must at least keep
Parental leave, and the right to request flexible working arrangements, must be available under the directive until the child is at least 8 years old. Member states may set the threshold higher — several do — but never lower. That's wider than most owners expect: an employee with a six- or seven-year-old is still entitled to the full parental leave, not just in the child's first year.
That surprises owners who assume parental leave is "something that happens right after the birth". In practice it can resurface years later, for a staff member whose family situation you may not have tracked at all.
6. 50%: how much of the 4 months is actually guaranteed paid
This is the number that catches most owners out: the directive only requires a guaranteed EU pay floor for the two non-transferable months — half of the four-month entitlement. For the other half, the directive leaves payment entirely up to the member state. Some countries pay it too, others don't, so the gap isn't in what an employee is allowed to take, it's in what's guaranteed to be paid for it.
In practice, "four months of parental leave" sounds like one block, but legally it's two halves with a completely different pay status. Never assume the whole period is automatically (partly) covered by a government scheme — check it half by half, for your own country.
One employee, the same daily wage and the same cover cost — only the number of days and the pay percentage change per leave type.
Adjust the numbers in the calculator below and this comparison recalculates automatically.
7. 480: the spread between the EU minimum and what some countries actually give
The directive is a floor, not a norm — and the gap with what some member states grant on top of it is enormous. Sweden's own, far more generous national scheme, for example, runs to 480 paid leave days per family, at a substantial share of salary for most of that. Other countries stay closer to the EU minimum and pay little to nothing extra for the non-mandatory half of the four months.
That spread is exactly why this article works from the numbers in the directive itself rather than one "typical" figure: the typical figure doesn't exist. What's ordinary for a restaurant in Stockholm is a completely different sum for one in Antwerp or Sofia — check your own national scheme for the exact amount.
Calculate what the cover actually costs
Pick the leave type, enter your own numbers, and the tool combines them into a concrete figure: what cover costs, what you may still owe the absent employee, and the total per shift you have to fill.
The starting values are one employee on paternity leave, a €120 daily wage and a temp who costs €160 a day — adjust them to your own team and every figure below recalculates automatically.
Leave cover cost calculator
Four numbers about your situation, one figure as the answer.
Cover cost
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Wage paid through
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Total cost of leave
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Cost per shift covered
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This figure is a starting point based on your own numbers, not a legally mandated cost. Replace the pay percentage with what your own national scheme or sector agreement actually requires once you know it — the calculator stays useful for every employee who takes leave after this one.
One thing that does hold regardless: cover almost always costs more per day than the absent employee earns, which is why the cost of this leave is rarely the same as the wage you're (partly) saving.
What to do about it this week, this month and this year
Handling a leave request well doesn't happen on the day itself. This order does, because each step sets up the next.
This week — know your own national minimum
- Look up how your country transposed Directive 2019/1158: how many days, what pay percentage, and up to what age of the child.
- Lay that next to your own sector agreement or CBA — it can go further than the EU minimum, but never fall short of it.
- Fill in the calculator above with your own numbers to see what cover would actually cost your team.
This month — build a standing cover plan
- Map which stations are most exposed if one specific employee is out for up to four months.
- Check whether cross-training can shrink that exposure now, rather than reacting only once leave has already been requested.
- Talk proactively with staff who are expecting a child about when and how long they plan to take leave — the earlier you know, the better you can plan.
This year — put the right to return in writing
- Document for yourself that every employee has the right to return to the same or an equivalent role after leave, and protection from dismissal linked to taking it.
- Re-run the calculator for every new leave request — daily wage and cover cost move with your team.
- Revisit your own policy yearly, alongside the other staff-cost articles on this site — a policy you never revisit eventually falls behind the actual law.
It isn't a favour — it's a floor that applies everywhere
Parental leave feels, to a lot of independent restaurants, like something other companies deal with — companies with an HR department, with more room to leave a station empty. The EU directive draws no such line: the right applies to every employee, at every restaurant, from four people to four hundred.
The seven numbers in this article together give a concrete picture of what that right actually means: how long, for whom, and — the number most often missed — how much of it has to be guaranteed paid. That last part is rarely what an owner expects.
All that's left after that is a standing habit of checking your own national scheme for the exact amount and exact timelines — and a cover plan that's already ready before the leave is requested, not written after.