Skip to content
Calculadora Capital
Employment Calculators

Spanish paid leave calculator

How many days of paid leave the Workers' Statute gives for each reason, whether they are counted in working or calendar days, and how that differs from a civil servant's entitlement.

The Workers' Statute gives different days for each cause, and states the counting basis for some but not others.
Days the law gives
2 days
How they are counted
The law does not say
Provision
art. 37.3.b bis) ET
Days the leave covers in the calendar
Date of the event2 October 2026
First day of leave2 October 2026
Last day of leave3 October 2026
Calendar days covered2 days
  • • Dos días, y la reforma de 2023 NO los subió: lo que subió a cinco fue la hospitalización de la letra anterior, con la que el fallecimiento compartía letra hasta el 29 de junio de 2023.
  • • Serían cuatro si necesitase hacer un desplazamiento al efecto.
  • • El Estatuto no dice si son hábiles o naturales. Lo decide su convenio.
Travel, town and date

The Statute extends bereavement leave by two days when you need to travel; the EBEP instead looks at whether the event happened in another town. On a working-day basis the leave starts on the first working day, because the right is to be absent from work.

General information for educational purposes. It does not constitute employment or financial advice.

Your collective agreement can improve any of these entitlements and add others. Where the Statute does not fix the counting basis, the agreement decides.

1

The 2023 reform raised hospital leave and left bereavement where it was

This is the most repeated confusion about the article, and comparing two versions settles it. Until 29 June 2023 sub-paragraph b) of article 37.3 read "Two days for the death, serious accident or serious illness, hospitalisation or day surgery requiring home rest": one sub-paragraph, two days, both causes together. Article 127.3 of Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 split it in two. Sub-paragraph b) kept accidents, serious illness and hospitalisation and rose to five days; a brand-new b bis) took the death of a relative and left it at two days, extended by two more when the worker needs to travel. That is why so many pages say "the leave went from two days to five": it is true of one cause and false of the other, and they shared a sub-paragraph until just over three years ago. If what has happened is a death, the statutory figure is still two days, or four with travel.

2

Personal days belong to civil servants, not to the Statute

Paragraph 3 of article 37 has nine sub-paragraphs: a) marriage or registering a civil partnership, b) hospitalisation, b bis) death, c) moving home, d) unavoidable public duty, e) union duties, f) antenatal appointments and birth preparation, g) being unable to reach the workplace, and g) again, organ donation. There is no sub-paragraph for personal days, discretionary days or "moscosos". The six days a year everybody cites are in article 48.k) of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee and are a civil-service entitlement. A private-sector employee has them only if the collective agreement grants them, and then the agreement sets the rules: how many, whether they expire on 31 December, and how much notice is needed. This also explains why so many searches end up on a regional government page: those pages describe their own staff, who are governed by the EBEP and not by the Statute.

3

Working or calendar days: the Statute is silent and the EBEP is not

Sub-paragraph a) of article 37.3 says "Fifteen calendar days in the case of marriage or registering a civil partnership", using that word. Sub-paragraphs b) and b bis) say only "Five days" and "Two days". In article 48 of the EBEP, by contrast, every entitlement carries its basis in writing: five working days, four working days, three working days. That is why the question is a recurring dispute in the private sector and not in the public one, and why a private-sector employee looking for their days and landing on a government page reads a figure that is not theirs counted on a basis that is not theirs either. Where the Statute is silent the collective agreement decides, and the reading paragraph 3 itself supports is that the right is to "be absent from work": a day on which you would not have worked is hardly a day of absence. This tool returns the basis each rule fixes and flags explicitly the cases where the Statute fixes none, rather than giving you a number that looks more certain than it is.

4

A housemate's death gives no days and their hospital stay gives five

The two consecutive sub-paragraphs do not cover the same people, and the difference shows up at the worst possible moment. Sub-paragraph b) reaches the spouse, the registered partner and relatives up to the second degree by blood or marriage, and adds two further cases: the blood relative of the registered partner, and any other person who lives with the worker in the same home and requires their effective care. Sub-paragraph b bis), the one about death, carries neither of those clauses: it stops at the spouse, the registered partner and the second degree. The result is that the hospitalisation of the person you live with and care for gives you five days, and their death gives you none. It is worth knowing precisely because it is the case in which nobody is going to go and read the article. And the second degree is the limit in both: grandparents, grandchildren, siblings and siblings-in-law are in; aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews are third degree and cousins are fourth, and they are out.

5

Two new entitlements, and the Official Gazette flags one of them "[sic]"

The article has grown twice in little more than a month and neither norm renumbered the sub-paragraphs. Final provision 2.1 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2024 added, with effect from 30 November 2024, leave of up to four days when the worker cannot reach the workplace or travel the necessary routes because of recommendations or prohibitions by the authorities, or when there is a serious and imminent risk, including disasters and adverse weather; after those four days the leave continues until the circumstances disappear, and if the work can be done remotely the company may arrange that instead. A month later, article 2 of Law 6/2024 added another entitlement, for the time needed for the preparatory acts of donating organs or tissue, in force from 3 March 2025 under its final provision 4. Because sub-paragraph g) was already taken, paragraph 3 now has two sub-paragraphs g) and no h), and the consolidated text of the Official State Gazette marks it with a "[sic]" of its own.

6

Nursing leave can be accrued, but the law does not set the divisor

Paragraph 4 gives one hour of absence a day to care for a nursing child until it turns nine months old, divisible into two parts, and allows it to be replaced by a half-hour reduction in the working day or accrued into whole days. What it does not say is the divisor for that accrual: the collective agreement sets it, so the number of days this tool returns is the direct arithmetic (the available hours divided by your working day, truncated, because half a day is not a whole day) and yours may differ. There are two further details almost nobody mentions. The entitlement increases proportionally for multiple births or adoptions, so with twins it is two hours. And the extension to twelve months exists only if both parents take it with the same duration and arrangement, and from the ninth month pay is reduced proportionally: that final stretch is not paid leave. A civil servant, under article 48.f) of the EBEP, reaches twelve months with neither of those two conditions.

Worked example

A private-sector employee's father dies and the funeral is in her own city, so she does not need to travel. Article 37.3.b bis) gives her two days, and the Statute does not say whether they are counted in working or calendar days: her collective agreement decides. If the death occurs on Friday 2 October 2026 and her agreement counts calendar days, the leave covers Friday and Saturday; if it counts working days and the leave starts on the first working day, it covers Friday and Monday the 5th. Two readings of the same sub-paragraph, and one of them returns her to work a day earlier. Had the funeral been in another province and required travel, the second sentence of the sub-paragraph extends the period by two more days: four in total. The same loss, for a civil servant, is resolved by article 48.a) of the EBEP with three working days if it happens in the same town and five if it happens in another: more days, on a basis her rule does state, but only up to the first degree.

Frequently asked questions

How many days of leave do I get when a relative dies?
Two days for the death of a spouse, registered partner or relative up to the second degree by blood or marriage, under sub-paragraph b bis) of article 37.3 of the Workers' Statute. If you need to travel for it, the period is extended by two more days, making four. Your collective agreement can improve that figure, and many do.
Was it not five days? I had read that the leave went up in the last reform
The five days belong to leave for an accident, serious illness, hospitalisation or day surgery requiring home rest, which is sub-paragraph b). Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 raised that cause from two days to five and, in the same reform, moved bereavement into a new sub-paragraph b bis) leaving it at two. Because both causes shared a sub-paragraph until June 2023, it is very common to see the rise applied to both.
Are the days working days or calendar days?
The Statute says so only for marriage leave, which is fifteen calendar days. For bereavement and hospital leave it says just "days", so the counting basis is decided by your collective agreement. In the public sector there is no doubt: article 48 of the EBEP says "working days" in every sub-paragraph.
Am I entitled to personal days?
In the private sector, only if your collective agreement grants them: article 37.3 of the Workers' Statute has no sub-paragraph for personal days. The six days a year usually quoted come from article 48.k) of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee and apply to civil servants.
What if the person who dies is someone I live with but is not a relative?
The Statute gives you no days. Sub-paragraph b) of article 37.3 does cover any person who lives with you and requires your effective care, but only for accidents, serious illness or hospitalisation. Sub-paragraph b bis), the one about death, does not carry that clause and stops at the spouse, the registered partner and relatives up to the second degree.
Does leave for the birth of a child belong here?
No. It was on this list until 2019, when article 2.9 of Royal Decree-Law 6/2019 removed it. Since then the birth of a child is not employer-paid leave but a suspension of the contract under article 48 of the Statute, with a benefit paid by the Social Security, and it has its own rules on length and timing.
What is the four-day disaster leave?
It is an entitlement added by final provision 2.1 of Royal Decree-Law 8/2024, in force since 30 November 2024, for when you cannot reach the workplace because of restrictions imposed by the authorities or a serious and imminent risk, including disasters and adverse weather. It gives up to four days and, after those, continues until the circumstances disappear. If the work can be done remotely, the company may choose that instead.
How many whole days does accrued nursing leave come to?
It depends on your working day and the working days you have left, and above all on the divisor your collective agreement sets, because the Statute allows the hour to be accrued "into whole days" without saying how. The direct arithmetic is to divide the available hours by the hours in your working day and truncate, because half a day is not a whole day.

Related calculators & reading

Embed this calculator

Paste this code on your site to show the calculator. It includes an attribution link.

Language
Theme
Accent

Preview

Free. The code adjusts its height automatically.

Sources

Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: