The provisions on medical expenses and maternity allowances for female employees are mainly to be found in the “Special Provisions on Labour Protection for Female Employees” (“Special Provisions”) and the “Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China” (“Family Planning Law”)
I. Maternity benefits:
Article 8 of the Special Provisions provides: “The maternity allowance for female employees during maternity leave shall be paid by the maternity insurance fund in accordance with the standard of the average monthly salary of all employees in the previous year, if this employee is covered by maternity insurance; or will be paid by the employer if this employee is not covered by maternity insurance.
The medical expenses of a female employee who has given birth or aborted shall be paid by the maternity insurance fund in accordance with the items and standards prescribed by this fund if this employee is covered by maternity insurance, or shall be paid by the employer if this employee is not covered by maternity insurance.”
Please note: If a female employee is already paid maternity allowances; she will no longer be paid salary by the employer. However, if the employer does not provide social insurance to female employees in time, the employer must pay salary to the female employee during her maternity leave. Any female employee can’t enjoy both at the same time.
2. Maternity leave
Article 7 of the Special Provisions provides: “Female employees giving birth shall be entitled to a maternity leave of 98 days, of which 15 days may be taken before delivery; in the event of dystocia, the female employee shall be entitled to an additional 15 days; in the event of multiple births, the female employee shall be entitled to an additional 15 days for each additional baby.
A female employee who suffers a miscarriage during the first four months of pregnancy shall be entitled to 15 days of maternity leave; a female employee who suffers a miscarriage after the fourth month of pregnancy shall be entitled to 42 days of maternity leave.
3. Extended maternity leave
In addition, according to Article 25 of Family Planning Law: “Couples that give birth to children in compliance with the provisions of laws and regulations may be entitled to rewards of extended maternity leave or other benefits.”
In other words, 98 days of maternity leave is the least maternity leave available to every female employee, there will be extra maternity leave applied to different situations. However, China does not yet provide a unified regulation on how long the extended maternity leave will be, it’s provided by each provincial or municipal government.
We have collected and classified regulations of all provinces or cities, and share the classification we made as follow:
- 30 days of extended maternity leave:
Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Hubei, Jiangsu, Chongqing
- 50 days of extended maternity leave
Guangxi
- 60 days of extended maternity leave:
Anhui, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Ningxia, Sichuan, Shandong, Hunan, Liaoning, Hebei, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Guizhou, Qinghai
- 80 days of extended maternity leave:
Guangdong, Shenzhen
- Three months of extended maternity leave:
Henan, Hainan
Other:
Total maternity leave of 180 days (including 98 days) – Heilongjiang, Gansu Total maternity leave of 158-180 days (including 98 days) – Fujian
For more information related, you may check our previous post: Female employee rights in China
Useful link:
Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People’s Republic of China
