Support for families

Parental allowance

From January 1^st, 2018, parents of twins, triplets, or more will have the right to allowance of CZK 330 000 (up from CZK 220 000). Parents have the right to claim for increase of parental allowance, or to receive the difference of CZK 110 000 if they had already used up the original CZK 220 000. This will not happen automatically; an official request is necessary. Parents have the right to claim the remaining difference if they are currently taking care of children up to 4 years old on a daily basis.

Another change has been made to the maximum amount of the monthly allowance which used to be CZK 11 500. Now, parents with higher income will be able to exhaust the allowance in a shorter period of time. Choosing the amount and pay period of parental allowance will also be available to students and unemployed persons. Up to now these persons without claim to maternity financial aid were not able to choose and the individual payments were paid in fixed amounts and periods for the time period of 28 months.

Paternity leave

A new type of sick leave has been introduced: paternity leave. It will be available to fathers of children, or alternatively men who are fostering children. Both employees and self-employed persons have a right to this type of aid under the condition that they had been insured for at least 3 months prior to the beginning of this leave.

The conditions should ensure that this leave is taken in order to help take care of the mother and child after the birth and not abused in order to celebrate the birth of the child.

The right to paternity leave is conditioned by the fact, that it can only be taken if the father starts the leave during the first six weeks after the birth or after taking the child into foster care. The leave is available for the time period of one week of interrupted paternity leave. The man will receive income of 70 % of the daily basis of assessment for each day of the paternity leave. During paternity leave the father is forbidden to conduct work in the employment from which he has applied for the leave.

This provision comes into force February 1^st, 2018. The right to paternity leave is available to fathers whose children have been born no sooner that 6 weeks before this comes into force, i.e. fathers of children born on December 21^st, 2017, or later.

Other topics

Minimum wage

From January 1^st, 2018, the minimum wage increases from CZK 11 000 to CZK 12 200. The minimum hourly wage is of course also increased from CZK 66 to CZK 73,20. These amounts are applicable for wages for full-time employment, that is to a fixed 40-hour work week.

In cases of shorter work weeks the minimum monthly wage amount is adjusted proportionately. 

The minimum wage must be met also in cases of agreement of work activity (DPČ) and agreement for work (DPP). In connection to the changes of the minimum wage, the amounts of ensured wage for individual work categories are also changed.

The amount of minimum wage also affects the area of tax advantage and tax credit. One can only claim tax advantage on children upon calculation of monthly pay if one’s income is equal to at least one half of the minimum monthly wage. The amount of minimum monthly wage is decisive also for the maximum advantage for enrolling a child in a kindergarten.

Another thing indirectly tied to the increase of the minimum wage is health insurance because the minimum wage gives the minimum basis of assessment for the insurance. Thus, as of January 1^st, 2018, the minimum basis of assessment for health insurance is CZK 12 200.

Electronic evidence of substitutive payments

There is now a new electronic evidence for substitutive payments. It shall be used for substitutive payments, i.e. payments for goods and services provided by companies in which more than 50 % of employees are persons with a disability.

Suppliers of substitutive payment options will be obliged to register the transaction in the electronic evidence no later than 30 days after the payment. The electronic evidence shall also include information about the quarterly count of employees with disabilities. The obligation of notice about the required number of employees with disabilities (OZP in Czech) for 2017 is subject to the unamended version of the law.

Employing foreigners

August 2017 brought significant changes concerning the residence of foreigners in the Czech Republic and their employment. These are some of the major changes:

• A change of employer or position of a foreigner with an employee card or an EU work card is conditioned by an approval by the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic.
• A new institute of the unreliable employer has been introduced. An employer who, for example, does not pay taxes as he should, does not pay social and health insurance, or has recently been issued a fee for illegal employment cannot employ foreigners any more.
• There is now a new foreign employee status, the so called in-house transferred employee. This makes it easier for top managers and specialists to move across departments of multinational companies within the EU. It is now simpler to enter the Czech labour market if one has received a similar permit in a different EU member state. At the same time, this card for managers and specialists is valid for 3 years which is longer than regular employee cards.It is a dual document which means that it serves both as a work and residence permit.