Thailand’s Labour Protection Act currently allows 98 days maternity leave, with several groups pushing for an expansion to 180 days to align with global standards and to support working-class parents.

According to Thailand’s Labour Protection Act, the maximum duration of maternity leave is currently 98 days, covering both pre- and post-delivery. During this time, employees will be paid 45 days by employers and another 45 days by the Social Security Fund.

Last year, a Labour Protection Act amendment proposed by Wanvipa Maison, the People’s Party’s MP, passed the first reading and was submitted to the committee stage. The amendment aims to increase maternity leave to 180 days.

However, the opinions within the committee are divided. The majority supports extending leave to 120 days, during which employees still receive their wages, and 15 days can be allocated to the spouse, while a minority supports 180 days of maternity leave.

Why extend to 180 days?

According to a WHO report, a baby should be breastfed continuously for 6 months or 180 days. This period would help strengthen their health and immune system, reducing the risk of diseaseThe baby would also receive the nutrition necessary for comprehensive development.

“During this critical period of early growth and development, the antibodies in breastmilk protect babies against illness and death. This is especially important during emergencies when breastfeeding guarantees a safe, nutritious, and accessible food source for infants and young children. Breastfeeding reduces the burden of childhood illness, and the risk of certain types of cancers and noncommunicable diseases for mothers,” according to a UNICEF and WHO joint statement.

Supensri Pungkhoksung From the Equality Promotion Foundation believed that 180 days of maternity leave would help encourage Thai families to have more children and help address the issue of an ageing society that Thailand face.

During the 2024 seminar of the Social Security Office, Danucha Pichayanan, Secretary-General of the National Economic and Social Development Council, noted that Thailand has already become an ageing society, with the elderly constituting over 20% of the population. If no action is taken, it is expected that the elderly will constitute over 28% of the population by 2031 and in 2040, one-third of the population will be the elderly.

Case studies

The Maternity Protection Convention mandates that the minimum maternity leave should be 98 days. While most countries in Asia, including Thailand, provide 98 days of maternity leave, Vietnam has outpaced these countries by offering 180 days of maternity leave.

In Western countries, Sweden allows parents, including those who are LGBTQA+, adoptive parents, and single parents, to take maternity leave for 480 days or around 16 months for one child and 240 days can be allocated to their spouse.

During the first 390 days, parents can claim benefits equivalent to 80% of their salaries, up to a monthly salary cap of SEK47,750 (147,839 baht). After that, there is a daily statutory compensation of SEK180 (557 baht).

In addition, as of September 2024, parents in Sweden can transfer up to 45 days of their paid parental leave to people who are not legal guardians, including grandparents and friends. For single parents, up to 90 days can be transferred per child from the total 480 days of paid leave.

In Albania, a woman can take 365 days of maternity leave, with a minimum of 35 days before and 63 days after the birth of a child. For women with twins or more, the leave is 390 days, including a minimum of 60 days in advance and 63 days after the birth of children. For an adopted child of up to one-year-old, the leave is 330 days from the day of adoption.

Albania’s Law on Social Security also specifies that parents on maternity leave will be paid 80% of the net salary for the first six months of leave and 50% of the net salary for the second six months.

In Finland, parents can start pregnancy leave 14–30 days before the expected due date of the baby, and they are paid for 40 working days.

A parental allowance of a total of 320 working days is paid for one child. If a child has two parents, each parent can get a parental allowance of 160 working days. Parents in Finland can also transfer a maximum of 63 working days of the allowance to another person who is caring for the child.

Who pays for the allowance?

Maternity leave allowance is normally paid by employers and the Social Security Fund. In Thailand, the Social Security Fund is a government-administered fund designed to provide social protection and benefits to Thai national employees in the private sector or those self-employed.

The Social Security Fund focuses on basic health such as sickness, childbirth, disability, old-age pension, death and unemployment.

Concerns about the Fund's sustainability have been raised, but experts argue that the impact of extending maternity leave to 180 days would be manageable.

Dr Sustarum Thammaboosadee, a representative from the Social Security Committee, in an article, published in Matichon Weekly says that the Social Security Fund pays a maternity leave allowance of 50% of the average salary (around 7,500 baht per month or 11,250 during the whole period) during the period of 45 days of the leave.

He said the Social Security Fund’s annual expense for maternity leave allowances is 3 billion baht.

The Fund currently receives 84 billion baht, with 72 billion baht allocated for social security benefits. The remaining amount will be invested, with a current return of 3 billion baht. This process is repeated annually.

If maternity leave is increased to 180 days, the cost would increase from 3 billion to 6 billion baht per year. However, Sustaram said this amount would be reduced to 4 billion baht in the next 20 years due to the declining birthrate. He affirmed that expanding maternity leave rights would not bankrupt the Social Security Fund.

Opposition from employers is a stumbling block to extending maternity leave to 180 days.

Ukrit Kanjanaket, senior advisor of the Employers’ Confederation of Thailand, said the reason employers opposed 180 days of maternity leave was that they would have to carry a greater financial burden, particularly during an economic recession and ongoing technology transformation. Employers are not ready for this skyrocketing expense.

Senator Chinchot Saengsang proposed a shared responsibility model between employers and the Social Security Fund, but the model has yet to be adopted. Supensri proposed that the government should implement measures to support employers who offer 180 days of maternity leave, such as tax or other benefits.

In December 2024, the Ad Hoc Committee Considering the Draft Labor Protection Act approved maternity leave rights of 120 days. The responsibility for paying allowance would be shared equally between employers and the Social Security Fund, and 15 days of the leave can be allocated to the spouse. The proposal will now move to the second and third readings.

Inclusivity in benefits

Thailand has around 20 million independent workers who are not covered by the Social Security Fund, and it is estimated that among this group, there are 10 million female workers.

Kritsada Theerakosonphong, a professor at the Faculty of Social Administration, Thammasat University, proposed that the government should consider inclusive policies, such as subsidies for workers in the informal economy. These subsidies could be provided directly to the workers or their children to help them sustain their livelihoods.

In addition, there should be policies to support child-rearing, like early childhood development centres. These centres should not only cater to underprivileged children but also include children of middle-class families, office workers, and informal workers, to alleviate the burden on mothers.

Kritsada said the current challenge is that we are focusing on advocating for the rights of only a certain group, leaving others without any benefits. It is crucial to expand our efforts to be more inclusive.