Sick pay and the qualifying deduction for hourly employees
An hourly employee in Sweden can be entitled to sick pay, and the employer then pays for the shifts they would have worked, for the first 14 days. Sick pay is 80% of pay, and from it you take a qualifying deduction (karensavdrag) of 20% of an average week's sick pay (Sick Pay Act, section 6, in Swedish).
Are they entitled to sick pay?
The right to sick pay applies from the first day of employment. If the agreed employment is shorter than a month, it starts once the employee has begun work and been employed 14 calendar days in a row. Earlier employments with you count if no more than 14 days separate them (section 3).
Försäkringskassan (the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, in Swedish) writes that hourly staff may be entitled to sick pay, depending among other things on the type of employment contract. If you are unsure, read the Act or ask your employers' organisation. On the employment forms: hourly employment.
The planned shifts decide
Sick pay is paid for days on which the employee loses pay because of the illness (section 6). For someone paid by the hour, you pay sick pay for the time they would have worked, Försäkringskassan writes. The sick pay period can only begin on a day they would normally have worked.
So the schedule matters. If Sara was planned for Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and falls ill on Monday, those shifts count. A shift never planned gives no sick pay.
How much: 80% and the qualifying deduction
Sick pay is 80% of pay. The qualifying deduction is 20% of the sick pay the employee would get in an average week (section 6). Without a fixed schedule you work out an average week, for example from the percentage of full time, the weekly schedule or the hours before the illness, verksamt.se writes.
If the first day does not cover the deduction, take the rest from the next, but never more than the sick pay for the period. After ten deductions in twelve months no new one is made (section 6), nor when they fall ill again within five days (section 7).
Example: Sara earns SEK 165 an hour and is planned for 6 + 6 + 8 = 20 hours a week. She is ill Monday to Wednesday.
- Sick pay per hour: 165 × 0.8 = SEK 132.
- A week's sick pay: 20 × 132 = SEK 2,640.
- Qualifying deduction: 2,640 × 0.2 = SEK 528.
- Monday, 6 hours: SEK 792 minus 528 = SEK 264.
- Wednesday, 6 hours: SEK 792.
- Total sick pay: SEK 1,056.
Sick pay and qualifying deduction
Use the weekly schedule or the percentage of full time. Without either, the hours before the illness.
Before tax. Collective agreements may calculate differently. Other benefits are not included.
Reporting sick, the declaration and the doctor's certificate
No sick pay is due for time before you were told, unless the employee could not tell you (section 8). They must give you a written declaration that they were ill (section 9). After more than seven calendar days, a doctor's certificate is needed (section 8).
If the illness continues past day 14, the employee can get sickness benefit from Försäkringskassan, and you must report the case to them within seven calendar days (section 12).
If they have no right to sick pay
An on-call employee without a right to sick pay can get sickness benefit from Försäkringskassan instead, which then makes the qualifying deduction from that benefit (in Swedish).
How Klokka helps
Klokka has no sick-leave feature, but what sick pay is worked out from is there: the jobs planned in the schedule, and the hours actually worked week by week for the average week. Remove or change the shifts that did not happen, and the month's hours are right.