Spain creates paid menopause sick leave from day one, no contributions needed

Spain creates paid menopause sick leave from day one, no contributions needed

The Council of Ministers approved a royal decree-law on Tuesday creating a specific temporary incapacity for conditions associated with menopause. The worker will receive her full salary on the first day —paid by the employer— and Social Security benefits from the second, at the same percentages as ordinary sick leave: 60% of the regulatory base up to day 20 and 75% from day 21. It is not automatic leave for having symptoms: it requires a specific diagnosable condition that makes working impossible.

What changes compared to ordinary sick leave

With ordinary sick leave, the worker receives nothing until the fourth day. The new rules eliminate those three days without benefits and, in addition, no minimum contribution period is required, which does apply to ordinary illness. The text takes effect upon publication in the BOE (Spain's official gazette), but needs Congress's approval within 30 days; without it, the decree lapses and the measure with it.

The Government does not specify which conditions will qualify for the benefit. It cites as examples severe sleep disorders, intense fatigue, cognitive impairments or psychological symptoms, always with a diagnosis behind them. That silence is the point that raises most misgivings: an open catalogue turns the sick note into a matter of interpretation.

The cost of the first day and the SME calculation

The first day is paid by the employer. That is where the economic criticism focuses: in a small workforce, the mental calculation of the hiring manager facing a candidate aged 48 to 52 may tip the scales without any declared intention. It is statistical discrimination, the same logic that penalises any right that makes hiring a specific profile more expensive.

Some argue the real impact will show in highly feminised sectors —healthcare, education, public administration— where absences are not always covered and the burden falls on the colleague who remains. The counter-argument: the measure corrects a gap and the cost is marginal compared to overall temporary incapacity spending.

Perimenopause and the calendar problem

The clinical detail that most discomforts the design of the rule is that the most intense symptoms often appear during perimenopause, the preceding phase. If the right is anchored to menopause, the period of greatest need remains in a grey zone. The age threshold —from 45 onwards, according to the profiles mentioned— turns the measure into a workforce management issue, not just a health one.

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Parliamentary approval will decide whether the text survives. If it goes through, the question left hanging is how many small companies will adjust their hiring before the first sick note reaches the mutual insurer.