Spain's Statutory Paid Menstrual Leave (2023) — Europe's First Law, Modest First-Year Uptake

The Organic Law amending Law 2/2010 on sexual and reproductive health was passed by Spain's Congress on 16 February 2023 (185 votes to 154), published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on 1 March 2023, and took effect on 1 June 2023. It grants workers a medically certified menstrual leave of three days, extendable to five, for incapacitating symptoms such as severe pain, cramping, nausea, dizziness or vomiting. Unlike ordinary sick leave, it is paid from day one at 75% of salary (up to a monthly cap) by the national social security system (INSS).
Data from Spain's Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration show the leave was used only 1,559 times between June 2023 and April 2024 — an average of 4.75 uses per day nationally, with an average duration of 3.03 days — across a workforce of more than 21 million. Analysts (People Management, GPA) attribute the low uptake to the doctor's-note requirement, the need to disclose a menstrual diagnosis to an employer, and lingering workplace stigma.
It is included here precisely because it is the clearest live test case in the EU tracking real utilisation of such a right: it gives other countries weighing similar legislation concrete before/after evidence to calibrate expectations, rather than relying on ambition alone.

Read the full analysis: https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/02/16/spain-set-to-become-the-first-european-country-to-introduce-a-3-day-menstrual-leave-for-wo