Do you have to pay employees sick pay and for how long

There are two different types of sick pay one is Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) and the criteria for this is:

Earnings have to be at least £112 per week before tax
Employee has to be sick for at least 4 days in a row, and SSP is only payable from the 4th day of sickness
The individual has be classed as an employee and not be self-employed or similar
Reporting the sickness to your employer ideally on the first day and at least within the first 7 days of sickness

Amount Paid
£88.45 per week
Paid for a maximum of 28 weeks
First 3 days of sickness not payable under SSP

The other type of sick pay is company sick pay – and this is purely dependant on what is in the employer’s employment contracts. If you need advice on what should be included in an employment contract please do not hesitate to contact us! An employer may decide to give all his employees 5 or 10 days sick leave per year, or any number of sick days per year with full pay but this is only given at the employer’s discretion. The statutory sick pay would be also payable, but would not have to be paid in addition to but offset against basic salary.