Sick leave as an employee

As an employee you're paid in two stages. For the first 14 days your employer pays sick pay, 80% of your salary. From day 15 Försäkringskassan takes over with sickness benefit, 77.6% of your SGI. A waiting-period deduction is taken on the first sick day.

If you have a collective agreement, a top-up is often added on top, both during the sick-pay period and later. Lotsa includes every part based on your salary and how long you're on sick leave.

Sick pay for the first 14 days

Your employer pays 80% of salary as sick pay on days 1–14, with a waiting-period deduction on the first day (20% of an average sick week). From day 8 you need to give your employer a doctor's certificate. If you're ill for less than two weeks it usually stays with sick pay, and Försäkringskassan is never involved.

Sickness benefit from day 15

If 14 days isn't enough, Försäkringskassan takes over. Sickness benefit is 77.6% of your SGI, which for employees is calculated as monthly salary × 12 up to the cap of SEK 592,000/year (2026). You apply yourself and submit a doctor's certificate from day 15. Benefit at the standard level is paid for up to 364 days; after that sickness benefit continues at the continuation level, 72.75%, with no outer time limit for as long as you can't work.

A collective agreement can top it up

If your employer is covered by a collective agreement, you usually get a top-up on top, around 10% of salary, via schemes like AGS, AGS-KL or ITP-sjukpension. That lands you near 90% of salary instead of 77.6%. One important detail: some of these payments you have to claim yourself from AFA Försäkring, including retroactively.