How does Ireland compare to other countries when it comes to sick leave entitlements?

The Irish Government announced on Wednesday that it would not be progressing with its plans to introduce an extra two days to the existing statutory paid sick leave period of five days, a move which has been widely condemned by The Irish Congress of Trade Unions as a "mistake and short-sighted."

An extra two days were to be added this year to bring the total number of paid sick days up to seven days for 2025. These extra days were part of a gradual increase which would eventually see the leave entitlement expand to a total of 10 days as introduced in legislation in 2022 by the previous Government.

Now, in what seems like a step backwards, the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke announced that the Government would not be going ahead with increasing the leave entitlement due to concerns surrounding the pressure it would place on businesses. 

The Sick Leave Act 2022 commenced in January 2023 and this initially set the leave entitlement at three days per year which eventually increased to five days in January of just last year.

The planned jump to 10 days did seem like an ambitious one considering it was only two years ago when we were first given just three days.

But are Ireland's sick leave entitlements overly ambitious or are we falling behind the rest of Europe? The answer to that is not so straight forward.

Ireland Vs Europe

When you compare Ireland to Germany or Iceland, then yes, we have a long way to go. In Germany, employees who are sick are entitled to receive continued full pay from their employer and that entitlement is limited to six weeks per year.

After these six weeks, Germany's statutory health insurance takes over and provides sickness benefits. Their health insurance covers 70% of people's gross income but no more than 90% of their net income and this sick pay is paid for a maximum of 78 weeks within a three year period. 

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Iceland has one of the best sick leave entitlements in Europe for employees. The country's legislation demands that at minimum employees are entitled to wages for two days of sick leave for each month they have worked with that company.

The general rule is that the sick leave rights of employees increase the longer they work for the same employer and that the number of sick leave days does not exceed a maximum number, although this can vary. 

Additionally, after one year of employment, an employee is entitled to one month's sick pay in the event of illness and after five years' employment this increases to three months. 

If we look at our closest neighbours, the UK's sick leave entitlements definitely pale in comparison to Ireland's recent legislative changes.

Currently in the UK, the Statutory Sick Pay is paid after the first three days of being out of work sick and then you can receive £118.75 (or around €137.35) a week for up to 28 weeks.

This, of course, is much less than it is in Ireland where sick leave is paid at 70% of people's gross earnings - which is up to a daily cap of €110. 

Where does Ireland fall?

Ireland doesn't fare too negatively when it comes to sick leave in comparison to some countries, especially its neighbour the UK. 

Notably only two of these countries mentioned are in the EU - Germany and Ireland. There is no blanket policy across the EU on how EU member states should handle sick leave entitlements and so there is a great deal of variation across Europe when it comes to this issue.

It is not unusual that Nordic countries such as Iceland top the charts when it comes to socially progressive legislation such as sick pay - they usually do. But there's also no reason why Ireland should not be able to reach those standards in future legislation.