Most people have called in sick at least once. But in Germany, workers have been taking more than one day off sick every month for the past year—and the government has had enough. Now, it’s proposing to dock workers’ wages.
German workers take an average of 14.8 sick days per year, giving the country one of the highest rates of absenteeism in Europe. For context, that is four times the UK’s sick leave rate.
And it’s costing the country’s businesses around around €82 billion ($110 billion) a year, according to the German Institute for the Economy.
So, now Chancellor Friedrich Merz is reportedly considering a drastic solution: turning to workers to front that cost.
German workers who take 5 or fewer days off sick will get a bonus
Currently, the country has a very generous sick leave policy: up to 6 weeks (30 working days) fully paid for the same illness, with a doctor’s note. They can take 5 days off sick without seeing a doctor in person, before needing to get a formal extension. And if the employee gets sick again due to a different illness, the 6-week period restarts.
The Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) proposed plans would see workers’ pay docked from the very first day they call in sick. Meanwhile, workers who take 5 days or fewer would receive a bonus.
The goal, according to German tabloid Bild — which broke the story over the weekend — is to nudge workers with minor ailments, like a cold, back into the office rather than reaching for the phone.
As one government insider put it: “It’s certain that Germany has the highest number of sick days in Europe. Both coalition partners would like to reduce that.”
In 2023, Germans called in sick nearly 20 times a year—a record high. That figure has since fallen by around 5 days, but bosses have still been complaining about “work-shy” Gen Z exploiting the system amid persistently high rates compared to other European countries.
Merz, meanwhile, has made his feelings towards Germany’s sick leave culture clear: Earlier this year, he underscored just how many weeks of 14.8 days leave employers high and dry: “That’s nearly three weeks in which people in Germany don’t work due to illness,” he stressed. “Is that really necessary?”
He’s also blamed the Germans’ lifestyle approach to work for the country’s low productivity. Merz said in a recent speech: “To put it even more bluntly: Work-life balance and a four-day week will not be enough to maintain our country’s current level of prosperity in the future, which is why we need to work harder.”
Fortune has reached out to the German government for comment.
Burnout is becoming a major global issue
Although Germans are leading the charge, they’re far from the only workforce cracking under pressure. Burnout has become one of the defining workplace crises of the post-pandemic era—and the data suggests it’s getting worse, not better.
One shocking study highlights that 54% of American workers report feeling unhappy at work, with the frequency ranging from occasionally to constantly. Yet they’re still showing up for their jobs, sitting at their desks, and silently emotionally struggling.
Office overachievers are so burned out that workplace experts have taken stock of the phenomenon and even given it a name: a “competence hangover.”
Research consistently shows it’s millennials who are burned out the most—the generation has wound up in middle management and bearing the brunt of layoffs. And in the UK, a mental health crisis among young workers is fuelling a surge in workplace anxiety, stress, and absenteeism that employers are struggling to get a handle on. They’re mentally checked out, on average, for one day each week.
It’s perhaps unsurprising that, at the same time, research shows office politics have made a major comeback post-pandemic: Return-to-office mandates, AI-driven efficiency, and layoffs have caused backstabbing and “workplace incivility” to spiral.
It’s gotten so bad that burned-out workers are phoning in sick and increasingly using medical leave as a way to escape—not because they’re actually unwell but just to mentally recover from their “toxic” bosses, decompress, and even job hunt. It perhaps might explain why Germans are pulling sickies so often.
