Shrnutí: It’s not just traditional employment that counts towards retirement. The Czech pension system also recognises some alternative periods of insurance, such as parental leave, sick leave, childcare or registration with the Labour Office. On the other hand, studying after 2010, for example, is usually no longer counted towards your pension. This article explains what counts towards your pension and what to look out for.
What usually counts towards retirement:
What usually doesn’t count:
Not sure if you have completed the required pension insurance period? We’ll help you check everything so you get what you’re entitled to.
You are entitled to an old-age pension when you meet two basic conditions: reaching retirement age and having completed a minimum period of pension insurance. The retirement age is set uniformly at 65 for people born after 1971. For older age groups, the retirement age depends on the exact year of birth, the sex of the child and, for women, the number of children brought up. In this case, it ranges from 53 to 65.
The second condition that we will look at in detail is meeting the minimum pensionable age. This is the statutory length of participation in pension insurance that an insured person must have in order to be entitled to an old-age pension. This period includes the periods during which the insured person has paid contributions to the pension insurance (the so-called contribution period) and also the so-called replacement periods. Let’s take a closer look at what exactly counts as contributory and compensatory periods.
The pension calculator available on the website of the Czech Social Security Administration will tell you when you are entitled to a pension.
The minimum pension payment period, or pensionable service, counts both the contributory time you have spent at work and the ‘compensatory time’.
Contributory periods include periods during which you have paid pension contributions or had contributions paid on your behalf by another person (for example, your employer). This period is essential for entitlement to and the amount of your retirement pension, as it affects both the total length of insurance and the calculation of the average personal assessment base (the income on which contributions were paid). Contributory insurance periods refer in particular to:
In our practice, we often find that people do not find out about missing periods of insurance until several months before retirement. Most often there are missing records of older jobs, periods of study or childcare. We therefore recommend that you keep checking the pension information sheet from the CSSA.
| Situation | Does retirement count? |
|---|---|
| Employment | Yes |
| SELF-EMPLOYED | Yes |
| Maternity and parental leave | Yes |
| Registration at the Labour Office | Partially |
| Study after 2010 | No |
| FTE/DPT without contributions | No |
Or was your retirement pension benefit calculated differently than you expected? We can help you find out how the Social Security Administration assessed your situation and check whether there was an error.
Compensatory time includes periods during which you have not paid contributions but which still count towards your pensionable service. You will get this in the statutory situations and provided you have completed at least one year of contributory insurance (even intermittently). It can be included in full or reduced to 80% (this means that if you have 100 days of compensatory time, only 80 days will count towards your pension insurance).
We include in particular:
In practice, there are situations where the Czech Social Security Administration has not correctly counted some of the compensatory time or the client has not provided the necessary supporting documents. Typical cases are childcare, registration at the labour office or studies before 2010. We can help you check everything.
Are you out of work and don’t know what to do next? When do you have to register with the Job Centre and how does it work? Will you get support at all, and how long can you get it? All these questions can be answered in our article.
There are a lot of questions around contribution and replacement periods and what counts towards your pension and what doesn’t. Let’s answer the most common ones:
Pension contributions are paid on your behalf if you are registered at the Job Centre. This time is fully counted if you receive unemployment benefits or retraining and if you receive severance pay, redundancy pay or redundancy payments.
The insurance is also paid for you if you are not receiving benefits but it is reduced to 80%. This is limited to a maximum of three years or one year if it was earned before age 55.
Many people mistakenly believe that any period of unemployment automatically counts towards their pension. In fact, registration with the Employment Service is essential. If a person is not registered, he or she may miss several years entirely in the required period of insurance.
When are you entitled to unemployment benefits? Find out in the next article.
If you are on sick leave (temporary disability), this time is counted in full. It works a little differently if you are on sick leave after you stop working. In this case, 80% of this time will count towards your pension, provided you paid sickness insurance while you were working.
Specifically, this includes situations where you have been ill and your doctor has recognised your temporary incapacity for work. In addition, if you have been ordered to be quarantined or have received any of the other sickness insurance benefits (e.g. nursing allowance).
Both maternity and parental leave count towards your pension. In particular, the time spent caring for a child up to the age of 4 counts in full, regardless of whether you are male or female, receive parental allowance or are registered with the employment office. However, this applies only to one person per child at any one time.
Expecting a baby and not sure if you are entitled to maternity pay? What about the need to be employed and what are you entitled to as a self-employed person? What if you left your job three months before the birth? We cover all this in our next article.
Whether your studies count towards your pension depends on when you studied and how old you were at the time:
It is the counting of studies that surprises many people. The law has changed several times in the past and the conditions vary according to the period when the person studied. In practice, this often leads to confusion, especially for people who studied in the 1990s or combined studies with employment.
Working on an agreement only counts towards your pension if you pay pension (social security) contributions on the remuneration. In 2026, pension insurance is payable for a work arrangement with earnings of at least CZK 4,500 per month and for a work arrangement with earnings of at least CZK 12,000 per month with the same employer. Only the period during which pension insurance is paid is subsequently counted towards the pension.
If you have been working for a long time under an agreement, it is worth checking whether your employer has actually paid pension contributions on your behalf. Errors in record keeping can significantly affect your pension entitlement and amount. We can help you with this.
It’s not just the years of traditional pensionable service that count towards your pension, but also some alternative periods of insurance, such as parental leave, sick leave, childcare or registration with the Jobcentre. On the other hand, for example, studying after 2010 is usually no longer counted. In the case of temporary and part-time work, it depends on whether pension contributions have been paid. You only become entitled to an old-age pension once you have completed the minimum pensionable period and reached retirement age. It is therefore worth checking the CSSA’s records regularly and resolving any discrepancies in good time.
The required period of pension insurance is currently at least 35 years, including periods of substitute insurance.
For an overview, see the informative personal pension information sheet from the Czech Social Security Administration.
Only if pension contributions have been made from it. In the case of FTEs and FTEs, it depends on the amount of earnings.
Yes, if you are caring for a person who is dependent on the help of another person with a specified level of dependency.
In some cases, the missing time can be made up by voluntary pension insurance.
Did you apply for a disability pension and get a denial instead of the expected award? Or was your retirement pension calculated differently than you expected? We can help you find out how the Social Security Administration assessed your situation and check whether there was an error.
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 15 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
Ondřej is the attorney who came up with the idea of providing legal services online. He's been earning his living through legal services for more than 15 years. He especially likes to help clients who may have given up hope in solving their legal issues at work, for example with real estate transfers or copyright licenses.
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