Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) is money paid by employers to employees who are ill and unable to work.
The Sick Leave Act 2022 became law on 20 July 2022.
The new sick leave legislation entitles employees to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).
From 1 January 2024, employees have a right to
Paid sick leave for up to five days per year
An SSP rate of 70% of their normal daily wages, paid by employers, up to a limit of €110 per day
To qualify for SSP under the new scheme, your employee:
Has worked for you for at least 13 weeks before the period of sickness
Has provided you with a certificate from their GP that states they’re unfit to work
To read more about how SSP affects your business, read our Sage Advice blog.
What if my employee is absent for more than five days?
If illness continues after five days of SSP:
Employees can qualify forIllness Benefit from the Department of Social Protection
This is a state payment, not employer‑funded
It usually starts from day six, once SSP has been fully used
To calculate normal daily wages
You can calculate normal daily wages as follows:
If your employee works a fixed number of hours at a fixed rate:
Use their daily wage immediately before the sick leave day
If your employee works a variable number of hours at a fixed rate:
Use their daily wage had they worked the sick leave day
If one or two don't apply:
calculate the average hourly rate of pay from the 13 weeks before the sick leave day. Then multiply this average hourly rate by the number of hours the employee was due to work on the sick leave day. If your employee didn’t work in those 13 weeks, use the 13-week period ending on the day they last worked.
You can use the Average Earnings and Working Hours report to help with the calculation.
NOTE:
Daily wages include regular bonuses or allowance, but not overtime or commission.
Enter Statutory Sick Pay
Create the payment:
From Settings, select Payments & Deductions, then Create New Payment.
From the Payment Category dropdown menu, select Statutory Pay. The rest of the fields populate for you.
Select Save.
You've now created Statutory Sick Pay as a payment in Sage Payroll. You can use this payment for all employees.
To pay SSP to an employee
From the Edit Pay section of the pay run, select Add Payment, then Statutory Sick Pay.
Confirm that your employee has provided the certificate. Enter the number of leave days and average daily earnings.
Select Save.
You've now added SSP to the employee's current pay run.