Continued Pay When You Are Ill

Who pays while you are ill?

For the first six weeks your employer continues to pay your salary. That is continued remuneration under section 3 of the Continued Remuneration Act. If the incapacity for work lasts longer, people with statutory insurance receive sick pay from their health insurer.

The condition is that you did not bring the incapacity for work on yourself. That does not mean every piece of carelessness but a serious breach of your own interests, for example an injury during a particularly dangerous activity or as a result of heavy drinking.

How much is continued pay?

You receive the pay you would have earned without the illness, so as a rule your full salary. What counts is your regular working time; supplements paid regularly are included, overtime ordered at short notice is not.

Where earnings fluctuate, for example with hourly pay across different months, the average of the preceding period is used. A deduction simply because you are ill is not permitted.

From when are you entitled?

After four weeks of continuous employment. If you fall ill before that, your employer does not pay yet, but people with statutory insurance then receive sick pay from their health insurer. So you are not left without cover; only the source is different.

The four weeks run from the contractually agreed start of the employment relationship, not from the first day actually worked.

What happens after six weeks?

Sick pay begins. It amounts to 70 per cent of your regular gross pay, but no more than 90 per cent of your net pay. Your contributions to pension, unemployment and long-term care insurance are then deducted, leaving around 80 per cent of your usual net pay in most cases.

For the same illness, sick pay is paid for at most 78 weeks within three years, including the six weeks of continued pay.

The six weeks apply per illness. If a second illness arises during an ongoing period of incapacity, that does not extend the period. If you later fall ill again with the same condition, a new entitlement can arise if at least six months lay in between or twelve months have passed since the first incapacity began.

Does this apply to mini-jobs, part-time work and probation too?

Yes. The Continued Remuneration Act applies to all employees, regardless of how much they work. In a mini-job there is also an entitlement to six weeks of continued pay, calculated from the hours you would otherwise have worked.

The difference lies in what follows: anyone who is not covered by statutory health insurance through the mini-job receives no sick pay afterwards. And during a probation period the entitlement applies quite normally, after the first four weeks of employment.

What do you have to do to receive the money?

Two things, and they count separately. First, the notification: you have to tell your employer without delay that you are unable to work and how long it is likely to last. Without delay means as early as possible, usually before work starts.

Second, the proof: the medical certificate has to be presented at the latest on the working day following the third day of illness. Your employer may ask for it earlier, even from the first day.

If you breach these duties, the employer may withhold payment until you meet them. The entitlement itself does not lapse, but the money comes later.

And if you are dismissed while ill?

A dismissal during sick leave is not automatically void; a sick note does not protect you from it. But if your employer dismisses you precisely because of your incapacity for work, continued pay nevertheless remains in place, until the end of the six weeks.

If the employment relationship ends before that, continued pay ends on the last day. People with statutory insurance then receive sick pay from their health insurer.