Israel sick days calculator

How many sick days you get under Israeli law

Section 4(a) of the Sick Pay Law, 1976 gives one and a half days for every full month of work with the same employer or at the same workplace, up to 90 days, minus the days already paid as sick pay. In a full year that is 18 days, and someone who is never sick reaches the cap after 60 months. The law covers every employee in Israel, including olim and foreign workers, unless sick pay is regulated by a collective agreement.

A month in which you did not work every working day

Under section 4(b), in such a month 25 working days count as a full month, and at a workplace with a five-day week, 21⅔ working days. Part of a month gives a proportional share of one and a half days. The Ministry of Labor gives an example: an employee who worked half the working days in a month accrues 0.75 of a day.

How much sick days pay

Under section 2(a) of the law, the first day of absence is unpaid, the second and third days are paid at half sick pay, and from the fourth day full sick pay applies. Full sick pay equals the wage the employee would have received had they kept working (section 5), based on the components in section 6: base pay, seniority, cost-of-living, family and departmental or professional supplements. Overtime is not on the list.

Example: 6 sick days at ₪400.00 a day

An employee with 10 full months of work has accrued 15 days. They have already been paid sick pay for 2 days, so 13 days remain. Now they are sick for 6 days:

After the spell, 8 daysremain. The law deducts from the balance "the period for which the employee received sick pay", so the calculator deducts the days that were paid, in full or at half, and not the unpaid first day. When the balance runs out in the middle of an illness, the law does not require pay for the days after it.

Cancer and dialysis

An employee with cancer or an illness that needs regular dialysis, who is absent for periodic treatment or tests, even after recovering, gets sick pay from the first day of absence as long as they have a balance. The condition is a written medical certificate that the treatment or test is connected to that illness (section 2(a1)).

Hourly and salaried employees

The law distinguishes between a salaried employee, whose pay is mainly monthly or longer, and an employee paid by the hour or day. Accrual is the same for both. The difference is in how sick days are counted (section 2(b)):

• Salaried: every sick day, including weekly rest days and holidays.
• Paid by the hour or day, full-time: every sick day, without weekly rest days and holidays.
• Paid by the hour or day, not working every working day (intermittent): the sick days multiplied by the ratio between the days worked in the fullest quarter of the year before the illness and the working days in that quarter. The calculator does not handle this case.

For example, illness from Thursday to Sunday is four sick days for a salaried employee. For an hourly employee working six days a week, Shabbat is not counted and Sunday is the third day of illness. For an hourly employee, the daily pay is the pay for a normal working day.

Notifying the employer, the sick note and when it is paid

• Tell the employer about the absence and its expected length within 3 days of the first day.
• To get sick pay, hand in a sick note signed by a doctor. If you are insured with a kupat holim (health fund), hand in a note from the fund or one it approved.
• Sick pay is paid on the day the wage would have been paid, if the note was handed in 7 days before. If it was handed in later, it is paid on the next payday.
• Sick pay counts as wages for every purpose (section 7), and late payment may entitle the employee to compensation for delayed wages.

Dismissal and leaving the job

An employer may not dismiss an employee who is absent because of illness while they have accrued sick days, up to 90 days (section 4a). The ban does not apply if notice of dismissal was given before the absence, or if the workplace closed permanently, the employer was declared bankrupt or a winding-up order was issued.

When you leave, there is no statutory right to be paid for unused sick days, unlike vacation days. A collective agreement or contract can provide for payment.

What the calculator does not cover

• Employees whose sick pay is regulated by a collective agreement or extension order, for example in agriculture and transport. The law applies only to those whose sick pay is not regulated by such an agreement (section 1). Someone entitled both under the law and under terms agreed with the employer chooses which to receive (section 12).
• An employer that insured its employees for sick pay in a provident fund: payment follows the policy terms (sections 8 and 4(c)).
• Absence because of the illness of a child, spouse or parent, which other laws regulate.
• Work accidents: no sick pay for a period paid as work injury benefit under the National Insurance Law (section 11).
• Partial incapacity, when the employer offers other suitable work (section 3).

The calculation is based only on the Sick Pay Law, 1976 and is a general estimate. A collective agreement, sector extension order or personal contract can give better rights. The calculator does not cover absence for a child's, spouse's or parent's illness, and does not replace legal advice or a check with payroll.

Sources

• Ministry of Labor: absence from work due to illness (Hebrew)
• Ministry of Labor: notice of dismissal and resignation, section on unused sick days (Hebrew)
• Sick Pay Law, 1976: sections 1 to 6, 8, 11 and 12