Law no. 66/2016 regarding amending and supplementing the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 111/2010 of monthly leave and allowances for raising children, was published in the Official Gazette, Part I, no. 304 of 20 April and will enter into force on 1 July. The new law brings significant changes, but one of the most important change is the increase of the minimum monthly allowance for child growth leave. “Monthly allowance (…) is established in the amount of 85% of the net average income in the last 12 months from the last 2 years prior to the child’s birth and can’t be less than 85% of the gross national minimum wage guaranteed’, provides Law. 66/2016. Thus, the monthly allowance will be reported at the gross minimum wage, specifying only a minimum limit, not a maximum one, as it happens in the present. Given the rise in gross minimum wage starting May 1, 2016, from 1050-1250 lei, the allowance will have a minimum amount of 1062.5 lei. Up until now, parents opted either for parental leave aged up to one year (or three years in the case of disabled children) or for parental leave aged up to two years. From July 1 things change. Under the new regulations, parents will benefit from a single length of parental leave, until the child reaches two years. Those parents who will be in leave for raising a child and who will want to come back faster in the workforce, will receive a monthly incentive insertion of 50% of the minimum allowance related leave, meaning 531.25 lei. Currently, the incentive insertion has a monthly amount of 500 lei.

The persons who will benefit from parental leave are “persons who, in the past two years preceding the date of child birth, conducted for at least 12 months salary income and assimilated to salaries, income from independent activities, income from agricultural activities, forestry and fisheries, subject to income tax according to Law no. 227/2015 on the fiscal Code, with subsequent amendments, referred to as taxable income, benefit from parental leave aged up to 2 years or 3 years if the child is disabled, and a monthly allowance “, says the new law. Just like now, any parent will be able to ask for the raising children leave and incentive insertion. Law no.66 / 2016 shall also apply to parents who at that time will already have been in child growth.