Illness: Companies pay record sum for sick employees
More than 85 billion euros - Never before have companies had to pay so much for continued payment of wages due to illness. What is behind the increase?
German companies spent a record 85.6 billion euros on continued payment of wages during illness in 2025, according to a study by the Institute of German Economics (IW). This represents a more than doubling of the nominal costs over the past 1.5 decades, with 81.2 billion euros spent in 2024. The total includes 72.5 billion euros in gross wages and 13.1 billion euros in employer contributions to social security.
The IW attributes the increase to higher wages, increased employment, and a higher sickness rate, which has risen significantly since the introduction of electronic recording of incapacity certificates in 2022.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
