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EXPLAINED: How much time can parents in Italy take off for sick children?

In Italy, this type of time off is called " congedo per la malattia del figlio"—literally, leave for a child's illness. It allows parents to stay home and care for a sick child without facing penalties at work. How much leave you're entitled to depends largely on how old your child is. If your child is under the age of three, you can take as many days off as needed to care for them when they're sick—there's no official limit. But once your child turns three, the rules become more restrictive. Between the ages of three and eight, each parent is entitled to up to five working days of leave per year for a child's illness. That's five days per parent, so both parents could potentially take time off, though typically not at the same time unless agreed upon with the employer. If your child is over the age of eight, there is no statutory allowance - presumably the government thinks that kids can take care of themselves once they hit the famously mature age of nine. The caveat here is that in the private sector, this kind of parental leave is almost always unpaid. Under Italian law, there is no automatic payment or wage compensation when a parent takes time off work to care for a sick child. However, collective agreements - which are negotiated contracts between unions and employers for specific industries or companies - can offer better terms. So unless a specific company agreement or public sector policy provides compensation, parents are often left to balance the cost of unpaid leave against the need to care for their children. In order to justify the days of absence you must provide the employer with the medical certificate of the child. What if I fall ill? If you're the one who falls ill, there's a structured pay system. The first three days - known as the ' carenza ' or waiting period - are fully paid by the employer. From the fourth to the twentieth day, employees typically receive 50 percent of their usual salary, and from the twenty-first day onward, the rate increases to 66.66 percent. Initially, employers front the cost of this sick pay, but they then recover it by reducing their social security contributions to INPS, Italy's national social security agency. If you're self-employed you may also be entitled to sick pay, under certain conditions.