Gesundheit!

The average number of days employees were sick went up in Germany last year from 15.4 (2006) to 16.3 (2007).

That’s a lot of sick days and I am happy to say that my company in Munich is significantly under this level.

The news item prompted me to look for a comparison table of average sick days in Europe and the US. This is what I came up with:

• Sweden           26
• Norway           21
• Finnland          15
• Belgium           16
• France             16
• Germany         16
• Netherlands   14
• UK                   13
• Denmark        10
• Austria            10
• USA                  9
• Switzerland     7
• Italy                 7
• Ireland             6

 The main story here: average sick leave in Europe is a lot higher than in the US. Most countries guarantee a very high amount of paid sick leave, unlike the US which does not guarantee workers anything – neither paid vacation nor paid sick leave.

How much paid sick leave do you receive? Do you think it is enough or would more days be justified? When employers offer high levels of paid sick leave, how can they stop abuse?

References:

Automobil-Produktion April 2008

Uwe Becker, “The Scandinavian Model”, published in IPG 4/2007. (Latest data from 2005)

Image from nmcp.mar.med.navy.mil