Continued pay
Continued pay is the continued payment of remuneration during illness-related incapacity for work and on statutory public holidays, without work being done.
As of:September 2026
The basic rule
Where incapacity for work due to illness arises through no fault of the employee, there is an entitlement to continued pay for up to six weeks. The entitlement arises only after the employment relationship has lasted four uninterrupted weeks (section 3(3) EFZG); before that the health insurer pays sick pay.
For statutory public holidays falling on a working day, section 2 EFZG applies: the working time lost has to be paid. That is why a public holiday is credited to the time account with the target time and not booked as an absence.
When the six weeks start again
With a new, different illness the period starts again immediately. With the same illness only where at least six months without incapacity due to that illness lay between the periods, or twelve months have passed since the start of the first incapacity.
Where two illnesses coincide in time, that does not extend the period. Where the second only begins after the first has ended, a new six-week period runs.
MetronHR works these figures out itself: time accounts, premiums, overtime and the limits of the German Working Hours Act, with every booking.
How much is paid
On the lost-pay principle, the remuneration that would have accrued without the incapacity (section 4(1) EFZG). Premiums for night, Sunday and public holiday work that would have arisen without the illness are part of it.
What is not part of it is remuneration paid additionally for overtime (section 4(1a) EFZG). Anyone regularly working overtime is therefore not compensated for it during illness.
Example: two periods of illness
- First incapacity due to a slipped disc: 15 January to 20 February, five weeks.
- Second, for the same cause, from 10 April: only one week of entitlement left.
- Reason: no six months without incapacity, no twelve months since 15 January.
- From 17 April the health insurer pays sick pay.
Common mistake
The public holiday gets booked as an absence and the target time is not credited. Over a year, on a five-day week that adds up to as much as 13 days in the negative that nobody caused.
Further reading
- Section 3(1) sentence 1 EFZG
- „Where an employee is prevented from performing their work by incapacity for work due to illness, through no fault of their own, they have a claim against the employer for continued pay during illness for the period of incapacity for up to six weeks.“
- Section 2 EFZG, section 3(3) EFZG, section 4(1) and (1a) EFZG
This is not legal advice; for a specific case at your workplace you are better off asking someone qualified to give it.
Published by: AMNAU GmbH
Editorial responsibility: Ugur Aydogan, Product development.
Last reviewed: September 2026
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Related terms
Incapacity for work
Incapacity for work exists where an ill person cannot perform the work they last performed, or can do so only at the risk of making things worse. What matters is the specific work, not the illness as such.
Target hours
Target hours are the hours a person has to work contractually in a period. They are the comparison figure for the hours actually worked and therefore the basis of every time account.
Holiday pay
Holiday pay is the remuneration paid on during leave. It is not to be confused with a holiday bonus, a voluntary special payment.
Electronic sick note (eAU)
The electronic certificate of incapacity for work is the procedure by which employers retrieve the sick note data from the statutory health insurer instead of receiving a paper certificate.
Child sickness days
Child sickness days are working days on which insured people stay away from work to care for a sick child and receive child sickness benefit from the health insurer for it.
Special leave
Special leave is release from work for a personal occasion, for instance moving house, a wedding, a birth or a death. Whether it is paid depends on section 616 BGB and on the employment contract.
Occupational integration management
Occupational integration management is a procedure by which employers, together with the person concerned, establish after prolonged incapacity how the incapacity can be overcome and the job preserved.
Phased return to work
A phased return to work is a step-by-step return to the workplace after a prolonged illness, with gradually increasing working time. It is medically supervised and rests on a phased plan.
Public holiday pay
Public holiday pay is the remuneration for working time lost solely because of a statutory public holiday. It is not an allowance but the continued payment of the regular wage.
Negative hours
Negative hours are a negative balance in a working time account: the time worked is below the target time. Whether they have to be made up or can be set off depends on who caused them.