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Who is entitled to maternity leave in Israel ?
Every woman contributing to Bituah leumi whether salaried or self-employed, can receive maternity leave in Israel. Provided she has paid contributions for a certain period of time:
- Contributions over a period of at least 15 months out of the last 22 months, or 10 months out of the last 14 months prior to childbirth, will entitle you to 15 weeks' maternity leave (i.e. 105 days).
- Contributions over a period of at least 6 months out of the last 14 months prior to childbirth will entitle you to 7 weeks' maternity leave (i.e. 49 days).
Any period shorter than this will not entitle you to maternity leave in Israel.
How much will I earn?
Visit Bitouah Leoumi takes the total of the last 3 months of employment before the birth, whether salaried or self-employed. It then divides this amount by 90 to find out how much a day's work is "worth".
Once this calculation has been made, the daily amount will be multiplied by the number of days the happy mother will receive. (105 or 49 days).
It is important to point out that mothers who gave birth before 01.01.2017 received 14 weeks' compensation (i.e. 98 days) and not 15. This law having been passed as of 2017.
Here's an example to help you understand:
Mrs B gave birth on 05/06/2017 and has been working for over 2 years without interruption as an employee.
According to the above, she is therefore entitled to 15 weeks' maternity leave, i.e. 105 days.
In order to calculate how much his working day is "worth", we'll need to take the pay slips for March, April, May 2017, which are as follows:
- Mars: 12,000shekels gross.
- April: 10,400 shekels gross.
- May: 13,000 shekels gross.
A day's work is therefore worth 35,400/90 = 393 shekels.
Mrs B will therefore receive 41,265 shekels.
This sum will be paid in a single instalment once the application has been submitted.
