Maternity leave: there is no separate maternity leave. Part of parental leave is reserved for women and women must take 2 weeks of this leave following birth.

Paternity leave: there is no separate paternity leave. Part of parental leave is reserved for men.

Parental leave: 9 months at 80% of earnings up to a ceiling on payment of ISK535,700 a month. Leave can be taken on a part-time (50%) basis and extended in length. Three months are reserved for mothers and 3 months for fathers. The remaining period is a family entitlement and may be taken by either mother or father.

Leave to care for sick children: none

Other: each parent has the right to 13 weeks’ unpaid leave until the child is 8 years old.

Iceland is a Nordic country, but not a member state of the European Union (EU). It does not have separate maternity, paternity and parental leaves, but a single system of ‘birth leave’, the period of leave divided equally between mothers, fathers and a family portion to be divided as parents choose. Prior to the recent introduction of the father's quota, few fathers took any leave. But the latest figures (for 2006) show that now most take leave; 88 fathers take leave for every 100 mothers taking leave, using on average 100 days compared with 185 days for mothers. This means that most fathers take the part of parental leave reserved for fathers, but only a small minority (19% in 2005) took any of the period that parents can share; 90% of mothers took some or all of this period.