What changes will the new maternity leave regulations bring from July 1, 2025?
What changes will there be to the new maternity leave regulations from July 1, 2025? The duration of maternity leave for childbirth, starting from July 1, 2025, will be implemented according to the regulations in the 2024 Social Insurance Law, enacted in 2024.
1. Changes regarding eligibility for maternity benefits.
According to the 2014 Social Insurance Law, there are 6 categories of people who are entitled to maternity benefits:
Pregnant female workers
Female workers giving birth
Female surrogate mothers and mothers who use surrogacy
Workers who adopt children under 6 months old.
Female workers who have intrauterine devices (IUDs) inserted or undergo sterilization procedures.
Male workers who are contributing to social insurance and whose wives give birth.
From July 1st, 2025, the scope of those eligible for maternity benefits has been expanded. Specifically, the following applies:
- Defense official
- Controllers, representatives of state capital, representatives of enterprise capital as prescribed by law; members of the Board of Directors, General Director, Director, members of the Supervisory Board or controllers and other elected management positions of the cooperative union as prescribed by the 2023 Cooperative Law, whether or not they receive a salary;
- Non-professional personnel at the commune, village, and neighborhood levels;
- Employees working under indefinite-term employment contracts, or fixed-term employment contracts of at least one month working part-time, whose monthly salary is equal to or higher than the lowest salary used as the basis for mandatory social insurance contributions;
- The head of a business household with a business registration participates in accordance with government regulations.
- Spouses who do not receive salaries from the state budget and are assigned to work abroad with members of the representative agencies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam are entitled to a living allowance.
- Foreign workers employed under fixed-term employment contracts of 12 months or more with employers in Vietnam, except for the following cases:
+ Internal transfers within the enterprise in accordance with the law on foreign workers working in Vietnam;
+ At the time of signing the labor contract, the employee had reached the retirement age as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 169 of the 2019 Labor Code;
+ International treaties to which the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a party contain different provisions.
2. Changes to the eligibility requirements for maternity benefits.
Female workers giving birth, surrogacy, mothers who use surrogacy, and adoption of children under 6 months old:
Having paid social insurance contributions for at least 6 months within the 12 months prior to giving birth/adopting a child.
If you have paid social insurance contributions for at least 12 months but have to take maternity leave as prescribed by a medical professional at a medical facility, you must have paid mandatory social insurance contributions for at least 3 months within the 12 consecutive months before giving birth to be eligible for maternity benefits.
Employees who meet the two conditions above and terminate their contract before giving birth/adopting a child are still entitled to maternity benefits.
From July 1st, 2025, the eligibility requirements for maternity benefits will include:
- Female workers who have paid mandatory social insurance contributions for at least 6 months within the 24 months immediately preceding childbirth are eligible for leave to receive infertility treatment.
3. Changes to the schedule for prenatal check-ups.
- During pregnancy, female employees are entitled to five days off for prenatal check-ups, each time...1 day.
Starting July 1, 2025, the number of days female employees are entitled to take off work for prenatal checkups will increase.2 days(maximum) in all cases (Article 51 of the Social Insurance Law 2024)
According to Clause 2, Article 59 of the Social Insurance Law 2024, the allowance for days off work for prenatal check-ups is calculated as one day's maternity allowance divided by 24 days.
- In cases where the pregnant woman lives far from a medical facility, or has a medical condition or an abnormal pregnancy, she is entitled to 2 days of leave for each prenatal check-up.
4. Changes to the duration of maternity leave.
- In case of miscarriage, abortion, stillbirth, ormedical abortionFemale employees are entitled to maternity leave as prescribed by an authorized medical facility.
From July 1, 2025, maternity leave will be applied to all cases of abortion (including...).medical abortion and unwanted abortion) according to Article 52 of the Social Insurance Law 2024.
The maximum duration of leave is stipulated as follows:
| Before July 1, 2025 | Effective from July 1, 2025 |
| + 10 days if the pregnancy is less than 5 weeks old; + 20 days if the pregnancy is from 5 weeks to under 13 weeks old; + 40 days if the pregnancy is between 13 and under 25 weeks old; + 50 days if the pregnancy is 25 weeks or more. | + 10 days if the pregnancy is less than 5 weeks old; + 20 days if the pregnancy is from 5 weeks to under 13 weeks old; + 40 days if the pregnancy is from 13 weeks to under22 weeks old; + 50 days if the pregnancy is from22 weeks of age or older. |
Maternity leave:
6 months (maximum 2 months of maternity leave)
If you have twins or more, from the second child onwards, each child is entitled to an additional month of leave.
If a child under 2 months old dies: the mother is required to take 4 months of leave from the date of birth.
If the child dies when they are 2 months old or older: the mother is entitled to 2 months of leave from the date of the child's death (not exceeding 6 months in total leave).
5. Changes to the one-time maternity allowance.
From July 1, 2025, the one-time maternity allowance under Clause 4, Article 58 of the 2024 Social Insurance Law will be twice the reference rate in the month the female worker gives birth.
According to Clause 13, Article 141 of the 2024 Social Insurance Law, until the basic salary is abolished, the reference salary stipulated in the 2024 Social Insurance Law is equal to the basic salary. At the time the basic salary is abolished, the reference salary shall not be lower than that basic salary.
Currently, according to Decree 73/2024/ND-CP, the basic salary is set at 2,340,000 VND/month.
Therefore, the one-time maternity allowance = 02 x 2,340,000 VND/month = 4,680,000 VND.
6. Changes to maternity leave regulations for those without mandatory social insurance.
According to current regulations, Article 4 of the 2014 Social Insurance Law stipulates that only those participating in compulsory social insurance are entitled to maternity benefits.
According to Article 4 of the Social Insurance Law 2024, from July 1, 2025, those participating in voluntary social insurance are entitled to maternity benefits.
According to Article 95 of this Law, the maternity allowance is VND 2,000,000 for each child born and for each fetus that dies in utero or dies during labor, from 22 weeks of gestation onwards.
