Continued pay during illness: six weeks of full salary and what comes after

Continued pay during illness has applied in the same way to all employees and trainees since 1994. If you are unable to work because of illness through no fault of your own, your employer continues to pay your full pay for up to six weeks (§ 3 EntgFG). Nothing is cut, and allowances and employer savings payments also continue. Only overtime does not count.

The only hurdle is the qualifying period. The entitlement only arises after four weeks of uninterrupted employment. For your insurance status this phase is neutral, because normal salary is paid. The premium and the employer contribution continue unchanged.

When they are ill, employees are in principle entitled to up to six weeks of continued pay. What matters, however, is whether it is a new illness or the same underlying condition. A new illness can trigger a new entitlement if the previous period of incapacity for work had already ended. If it starts during an ongoing period of incapacity, the entitlement does not usually get longer.

For the same underlying condition, a new entitlement only arises once the employee has not been unable to work because of this illness for at least six months, or once twelve months have passed since the start of the first period of incapacity. A gradual return to work also still counts as incapacity for work. In this phase there is usually no regular salary, but Krankengeld (i) or, for privately insured people, the agreed Krankentagegeld (i). With recurring back problems, mental illness or chronic conditions in particular, clear follow-on cover is therefore especially important.

After continued pay ends, people with statutory insurance receive Krankengeld (i):

• 70% of gross pay
• at most 90% of net pay
• capped at the Beitragsbemessungsgrenze
• limited to 78 weeks per illness

Even there, a noticeable gap to your usual net pay appears. It grows with income, because the cap hits high earners more than others.

One point is important for context. This Krankengeld (i) is a benefit of statutory health insurance. When you switch to private health insurance, you give it up completely and replace it with a Krankentagegeld (i) under contract.

Privately insured employees cover their loss of earnings with a Krankentagegeld (i). It is agreed as a fixed daily rate and ideally replaces net pay from day 43. Adjust the amount to your income regularly.

Two items are often forgotten in the calculation of what you need:

• the ongoing premium, which has to be paid without salary and so also without an employer contribution
• your ongoing private pension savings

Unlike statutory Krankengeld (i), the Krankentagegeld (i) is not limited to 78 weeks. It runs as long as you are unable to work and only ends with occupational disability.

In our advice work, continued pay during illness is one of the topics people underestimate most often when they switch to private health insurance. The first six weeks feel safe, so the Krankentagegeld (i) is treated as a place to save money. That backfires with the first long illness.

We recommend that employees who take out private health insurance calculate the Krankentagegeld (i) as a mandatory part, not as an extra. Base the daily rate on your current net pay plus the premium and raise it with every pay rise. Self-employed people need to plan even earlier, because they have no continued pay at all. Their daily allowance should sensibly start well before day 43.

Yes. People in marginal employment also have the full entitlement to six weeks of continued pay from their employer. What they lack is cover afterwards, because a mini-job gives no entitlement to statutory sick pay.

The period runs in calendar days, so 42 days including weekends and public holidays, starting with the first day you are unable to work. You receive the pay you would have earned without the illness.

It continues unchanged, including the duty to pay premiums. This is exactly why a good Krankentagegeld (i) includes a reserve above pure net pay replacement. In the case of permanent occupational disability the daily allowance ends. Then an occupational disability pension and, where relevant, a dormant policy solution set the course.