Germany faces 85.6 billion euro cost from employee sick leave

German employers are projected to spend approximately 85.6 billion euros on sick leave costs in 2025, according to calculations by the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft. This total includes roughly 72.5 billion euros in wages paid during incapacity and 13.1 billion euros in related contributions. Experts note that the rise in nominal costs is driven by increased absenteeism, rising wages, and higher employment levels.

In response to these costs, the German government has discussed tightening sick leave rules, including potential changes to telephone-based certificates for respiratory infections and requiring medical certificates from the first day of absence.

Similar trends are observed in Poland, where ZUS data shows that 27.5 million medical certificates were issued in 2025, totaling 290.5 million days of absence. This represents an increase of 8 million days compared to 2021. Mikołaj Zając, president of Conperio, warned that high levels of absenteeism affect overall economic productivity and emphasized the need for system integrity and effective controls to prevent the scale of the problem from reaching German levels.