Worker & Sick Leave Data
📊 Payment Distribution During Leave
A temporary disability (incapacidad temporal), commonly known as medical sick leave (baja médica), is a status in Spain where an employee or self-employed worker is temporarily unable to perform their duties due to illness or injury while receiving medical care. During this period, the employment contract is suspended, and the worker is legally entitled to a daily cash benefit to replace lost wage income.
This benefit is not a flat-rate payment, nor does it automatically equal your usual net salary. Instead, it is calculated based on your social security contribution base (base de cotización) from the previous month. Under Spanish law, the percentages and payment terms differ depending on whether the leave is due to a common contingency (common illness or household accident) or a professional contingency (workplace injury or occupational disease). Additionally, many collective bargaining agreements (convenios colectivos) obligate employers to top up these statutory payments to 100% of your salary from either the first or fourth day of leave.
Using this sick leave calculator, you can estimate the exact cash benefit you will receive and determine how much is funded by your employer versus the Social Security administration.
⚙️ Statutory sick leave payment schedules
The daily benefit is distributed across time blocks according to the cause of the leave:
- Common illness or non-occupational accident:
- Days 1 to 3: €0 (unpaid, unless your collective agreement states otherwise).
- Days 4 to 15: 60% of your daily contribution base (paid by your employer).
- Days 16 to 20: 60% of your daily contribution base (paid by Social Security or the mutual insurance agency).
- Days 21 onwards: 75% of your daily contribution base (paid by Social Security/Mutual).
- Workplace accident or occupational disease:
- Days 1 onwards: 75% of your daily contribution base starting from the day after the accident (the day of the injury is paid as a full work day by your employer).
📐 Benefit calculation formula
The daily benefit rates are derived from your daily contribution base (base reguladora):
Daily Contribution Base = Previous Month’s Base / 30
For each day of leave ($d$), the applicable statutory percentage is applied:
Daily Benefit = Daily Base × Applicable Percentage
If your contract includes an employer top-up, the supplement is calculated as:
Daily Employer Top-up = max(0, (Daily Base × Target Percentage) - Daily Benefit)
📊 Worked sick leave scenarios
We review two typical scenarios for salaried workers in Spain:
Example 1: Off-work flu recovery (common illness) for 15 days
- Days 1 to 3: **€0.00**
- Days 4 to 15 (12 days paid by employer at 60%): **12 days × (€70.00 × 0.60) = €504.00**
- Days 16 onwards: **€0.00** (returned to work on day 16)
Example 2: Workplace injury (occupational accident) for 30 days
- Days 1 to 3 (statutory benefit at 75%): **3 days × €75.00 = €225.00**
- Days 4 to 30 (statutory benefit at 75% + 25% employer top-up): **27 days × €100.00 = €2,700.00**
- Breakdown of funding sources:
- Statutory Social Security share (75% for 30 days): **€2,250.00**
- Mandatory employer top-up (25% for 27 days): **€675.00**
⚠️ Key pitfalls when calculating sick leave
- Confusing net take-home pay with your contribution base: Your contribution base (base de cotización) is typically higher than your base salary because it includes prorated extra pay (pagas extras) and other taxable benefits.
- Believing self-employed workers get no coverage: Self-employed workers (autónomos) follow the same schedule: days 1–3 are unpaid for common illness, but they receive the standard 60% and 75% rates thereafter, provided they are up to date with social security contributions.
- Failing to check collective agreements: Many workers assume they will lose money on sick leave, but a large portion of Spanish collective agreements mandate 100% salary coverage for at least the first month.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
For common illness, days 1–3 are unpaid. Days 4–15 are paid by your employer. From day 16 onwards, payments are funded by Social Security or the mutual insurance agency, though they are usually disbursed by your employer via the normal monthly payroll (delegated payment).
It is the system in Spain where your employer continues to pay you directly on your normal payday during sick leave. The company then deducts these payments from the social security contributions it pays for its staff.
The maximum duration for temporary disability (incapacidad temporal) in Spain is 365 days. After this, the INSS can extend the leave for an additional 180 days if recovery is expected, or initiate a permanent disability review.
Yes, you can be dismissed if there are genuine objective or disciplinary grounds unrelated to your illness. However, dismissing an employee solely because they are sick is illegal and deemed null (despido nulo) under Spain's 15/2022 Equal Treatment Act.
Yes. Both the employer and the employee must continue to pay social security contributions. The employer pays their share, and the employee's portion is deducted directly from the sick leave benefit.
Yes. You continue to accumulate vacation days normally during temporary disability. If your scheduled holidays coincide with your sick leave, you can take those vacation days after you receive your medical clearance (alta médica).