Anyone who is sick for more than two weeks receives sickness benefit from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, which generally corresponds to 80 percent of their salary and can be supplemented by sick pay from their employer.
If an employee with a collective agreement is on sick leave for more than three months, they can, in addition to sickness benefit, receive compensation from contractual insurance, which for most people corresponds to almost 90 percent of their salary in the first year.
But only six out of ten people who were on sick leave for more than three months received compensation from contractual insurance in 2023, according to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, and the trend is downward.
The analysis shows that people with higher salaries are more likely to receive compensation from contractual insurance than those with lower salaries.
Corrected: In a previous version, there was incorrect information about who can receive and has received compensation from contractual insurance.
