Paternity leave is a specific type of leave that allows fathers to spend some time with their newborn child, to adapt to their newly acquired active role in parenthood, to support their partner and to adjust to living with their child. Paternity leave allows for a deeper promotion of gender equality in both working and private life and creates an important social tool to support the family as a whole. The aim of our paper is to compare selected criteria for the use of paternity leave in EU countries, based on OECD data and valid for 2022. The resulting differences in paternity leave settings are quite surprising and do not correspond to the economic as well as geographical aspects of these countries.