Co-fathers and surrogate mothers employed by the Danish Regions will now receive salary during maternity leave, following an agreement between the regions and professional organizations. This supplements existing maternity leave agreements until the next collective bargaining in 2026 and applies to 150,000 regionally employed people.

The agreement follows new rules implemented in January that entitled surrogate mothers and parents using surrogacy to maternity leave with maternity benefits. Because salary during leave requires a specific labor market agreement, this new arrangement was necessary.

The January rules also allowed both parents in a couple using surrogacy to be recognized as the child’s legal parents, a change particularly impactful for homosexual couples with two fathers.

These rules, adopted by the Danish Parliament in December, provide both parents of a child born via surrogacy with 24 weeks of leave with maternity benefits after the birth. Surrogate mothers are entitled to absence and benefits four weeks before the expected birth and ten weeks after, regardless of whether they care for the child.