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Call in, get the note by day four, know who pays
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- Day one: tell your employer before your working day starts, and say how long you expect to be out. You do not have to say what is wrong.
- Day four: a doctor’s certificate is required from the fourth calendar day, earlier if your employer asks for it. If you are publicly insured, the doctor sends it electronically and your employer retrieves it.
- Pay: your employer pays your full salary for up to six weeks per illness. After that your health insurer pays sick pay of 70% of your gross pay, up to a daily ceiling.
Nobody in Germany has to work while ill, and nobody loses pay in the first six weeks. The rules are about timing, so the table below puts them on a timeline. If you are privately insured, the second half of that timeline is different: the public insurer’s sick pay does not exist for you, and the health insurance guide explains which cover replaces your income when you are off for longer.
Who pays from which day
| When | What you do | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Before your shift on day 1 | Inform your employer that you are ill and for how long you expect to be out. Phone, email or chat, whatever the company uses. | Employer, full salary |
| Day 4 at the latest | See a doctor, who certifies the incapacity and its expected length. The practice sends the data to your health insurer, and your employer retrieves the certificate electronically. You receive a printout for your files. Privately insured: hand in the paper certificate yourself. | Employer, full salary |
| When the certificate runs out | Get a follow-up certificate at the latest on the next working day after the last certified day. Saturdays do not count as working days here. | Employer, full salary |
| After six weeks with the same illness | Your health insurer takes over. It calculates the amount from your last payslip and pays for every calendar day, weekends included. | Health insurer: 70% of gross pay, at most 90% of net pay, at most €135.63 a day |
| After 78 weeks within three years for the same illness | Sick pay ends. The insurer and the pension fund will have contacted you before this point about rehabilitation or a pension. | Depends on the next step |
| Sources: Continued Remuneration Act, Social Code Book V; Techniker Krankenkasse and AOK for the daily ceiling, retrieved 4 November 2026. | ||
The six weeks apply per illness. A new illness starts a new six weeks. For the same illness the employer’s six weeks start again only after six months in which you were not off with it, or twelve months after it first began.
New job: the first four weeks
The employer’s duty to pay starts after four weeks in the job. If you fall ill before that, your statutory health insurer pays sick pay from the day the doctor certifies the incapacity, at the rate in the table. From the fifth week of the job the employer pays. The Probezeit guide has the dates for a typical start.
Telephone sick note and video consultation
A doctor who knows you can certify up to five calendar days by telephone without seeing you, if the illness allows a judgment over the phone. Video consultations are a second route. The federal government announced in July 2026 that it wants to end the telephone option and require a certificate from the first day of illness. As of November 2026 no law has been passed, so the rules above apply until they change.
How sick pay from the insurer is worked out
Sick pay (Krankengeld) is 70% of your regular gross pay, never more than 90% of your net pay, and never more than the daily ceiling in the table, which is 70% of the daily contribution limit. Example: on €3,600 gross a month, 70% comes to €84 per calendar day. If 90% of your net pay works out lower, you receive that lower figure. The insurer does the calculation from the payslip your employer transmits.
When your child is ill
Parents with statutory insurance can stay home to care for an ill child under twelve. Each parent has 15 working days per child a year, single parents 30, with a yearly cap of 35 and 70 days. The insurer pays child sick pay of 90% of the lost net pay, up to the same daily ceiling, and your employer has to release you unpaid for that time. The entitlement needs a doctor’s note for the child.
Ill on vacation or abroad
Certified sick days during your vacation are not deducted from your vacation. Tell your employer and get the certificate as you would at home. If you fall ill abroad, inform your employer as fast as possible and give your address there. The employer bears the cost of that call. Tell your health insurer as well.
If the pay stops or a dismissal arrives
Your employer may hold back pay only while you have not produced the certificate. Being ill does not shield you from a dismissal, and a dismissal received while ill has to be challenged within three weeks like any other. Both disputes go to the labor court, where in the first instance each side pays its own lawyer. Legal insurance with the employment module pays yours, once its waiting period has passed. Feather and Getsafe work in English. Modules and exclusions: legal insurance in Germany.
Bottom line
Call in before your shift, get the certificate on time and your pay keeps running. With private insurance, check now which cover replaces your income during a longer absence, because the public insurer’s sick pay does not exist for you.
Part of working in Germany. Related: vacation days · overtime · your contract.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. You report that you are unfit for work and for how long. The diagnosis goes only to your health insurer. The certificate your employer retrieves shows the dates of your incapacity, not the reason.
By Monday, if you are still ill. The follow-up has to be issued on the next working day after the last certified day, and Saturdays do not count as working days for this rule. A gap of even one day can interrupt your sick pay from the insurer, so book the appointment before the certificate runs out.
Nobody, unless you hold a daily sickness benefit policy (Krankentagegeld), which private insurers sell as an add-on. Employees who switch to private insurance should take it out at the same time, with a benefit that starts on day 43. The private health insurance pages explain the options.
Your employer pays your pay for up to six weeks, once you have been in the job for four weeks, like any other employee. Sick pay from a health insurer after that does not exist for a minijob, because no health insurance contributions are paid on it.
Your employer pays what you would have earned in your regular working time, so a public holiday in your sick leave is paid like a normal holiday. The insurer’s sick pay after six weeks is a daily amount paid for every calendar day, weekends and holidays included.
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
Sources and legal basis (as of 4 November 2026)
- Continued Remuneration Act (Entgeltfortzahlungsgesetz), § 5: notifying the employer, the certificate from the fourth day, the electronic certificate for the publicly insured, illness abroad; § 3: six weeks of pay per illness, entitlement after four weeks of employment; § 4: amount of continued pay; § 7: the employer may withhold pay while no certificate is produced.
- Social Code Book V (SGB V), § 46: sick pay from the day of the medical certificate, follow-up on the next working day, Saturdays excluded; § 47: 70% of gross pay, at most 90% of net pay, up to the contribution ceiling; § 48: 78 weeks within three years.
- Techniker Krankenkasse, sick pay: entitlement, duration, amount (daily maximum €135.63 in 2026) and contribution ceilings 2026 (€5,812.50 a month, €193.75 a day); DAK, sick pay for employees (first four weeks of a new job, minijobs); all in German.
- Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss), decision of 7 December 2023 on the telephone certificate (up to five calendar days), with the text as published (in German).
- On the government’s plan of July 2026: Stuttgarter Zeitung, ministry statement, October 2026; Kassenärztliche Vereinigung Westfalen-Lippe, press release of July 2026 (both in German).
- Social Code Book V, § 45: child sick pay, 15 days per child and parent in 2026, 90% of net pay, unpaid release by the employer; AOK, child sick pay (in German).
- Federal Vacation Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz), § 9: certified sick days during vacation are not deducted.
- Protection Against Dismissal Act (Kündigungsschutzgesetz), § 4: three weeks to challenge a dismissal; Labor Court Act (Arbeitsgerichtsgesetz), § 12a: each side pays its own lawyer in the first instance.
Further sources (retrieved on 4 November 2026). Legal insurance waiting periods: the providers’ product pages as documented on legal insurance in Germany. Product data: our own product database. The €84 example is our own calculation from the 70% rule.