When a five-week holiday meets a nine-week children's summer holiday

Salzburg, 18 August 2026. For children, the summer holidays are the best time of the year. For working parents, however, nine consecutive weeks of holidays often pose an enormous organisational and financial challenge. That is why, since 2019, BIOGENA has been supporting parents within the company with a holiday care allowance of 800 euros gross for each child aged between six and ten.

For many families, the numbers simply don’t add up: nine weeks of summer holidays are set against a statutory holiday entitlement of, as a rule, five weeks – and this holiday entitlement is also needed for Christmas, Easter and other school holidays. Even if both parents share their holiday entitlement, there is often still a significant gap in childcare provision.

Grandparents do not always live nearby; some are still working themselves or are unable to provide childcare for several weeks at a time. Holiday camps and other childcare options are often fully booked well in advance and pose major financial challenges for families – particularly those with several children. At the same time, working from home is no substitute for reliable childcare.

BIOGENA therefore pays a holiday care allowance of 800 euros gross for each child aged between six and ten, together with the August salary each year. Parents can use the money as they see fit – for example, for a holiday camp, a week of football or tennis, a ‘stand-in granny’ or ‘stand-in grandad’, or other care arrangements that suit their individual needs.

“Nine weeks’ summer holidays and five weeks’ annual leave – this simply doesn’t add up for working parents. For many families, therefore, the search for affordable and reliable childcare begins months in advance every year. But ‘family-friendliness’ must not remain just a buzzword. It must be felt in everyday life. By providing 800 euros for every child aged between six and ten, we are making a tangible contribution that supports parents in our company precisely when the strain is at its greatest,” explains BIOGENA founder and CEO Dr Albert Schmidbauer.

The holiday care bonus was introduced in 2019 and has become one of the most popular family benefits within the BIOGENA GROUP. It is not about dictating to parents which form of childcare they should choose. Every family has different needs and circumstances. That is why the focus is on flexible and unbureaucratic support.

For BIOGENA, balancing family and work is not merely a private matter for employees, but a shared responsibility. Whilst companies cannot bridge the structural childcare gap during the summer holidays on their own, they can provide tangible relief for their employees.

“If you want to retain good staff in the long term, you have to understand the realities of their lives. Parents don’t need empty promises, but solutions that actually help. For us, the holiday childcare bonus is therefore not a symbolic benefit, but an expression of our responsibility as an employer,” explains Julia Hagenauer, Managing Director at BIOGENA and a mother herself.

With this measure, BIOGENA also aims to encourage other companies to align their family-friendly benefits more closely with the actual challenges faced by working parents. After all, a better work-life balance benefits not only families but also companies: through reduced organisational stress, greater staff retention and parents who can concentrate on their work even during the long holiday period.