When an employee is out for months after the death of a partner, HR’s first question is usually: how long do we keep paying?
The answer is clearly regulated. The conclusion many people draw from it is wrong.
The process in four phases
| Phase | Duration | Who pays | What the employer carries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Special leave | 1 to 2 working days | Employer | full pay |
| Continued pay | up to 6 weeks | Employer | full pay |
| Sick pay (Krankengeld) | up to 78 weeks | Health insurer | no wage cost, but cover |
| Return to work | months | Employer | full pay at reduced output |
1. Special leave
One to two working days under §616 BGB, provided it hasn’t been excluded in the employment contract. This is paid time off, not incapacity to work.
Further reading: Special Leave on a Death in the Family
2. Continued pay, six weeks
If a medically certified incapacity to work follows the death, §3 EFZG applies: up to six weeks of continued pay at full salary, carried by the employer.
This requires a diagnosis with clinical significance. Grief on its own does not qualify. In practice, after a severe loss, doctors often diagnose an adjustment disorder or a depressive episode, which does establish incapacity to work.
Six weeks is 30 working days. At an average labour cost of €360 per working day, that comes to around €10,800, carried entirely by the employer.
Smaller companies recover part of continued pay through the U1 levy scheme (Umlageverfahren), if they are subject to it. The reimbursement rate depends on the levy option chosen.
3. Sick pay, after that
Once the six weeks end, the statutory health insurer pays sick pay (Krankengeld). It amounts to 70 percent of gross pay, capped at 90 percent of net pay, and is paid for the same condition for a maximum of 78 weeks within a three-year period.
The employer’s wage cost drops to zero in this phase.
This is the point where back-of-envelope cost calculations regularly run too high. Multiplying eight months of absence by the full daily rate overstates the real cost by seven months’ worth. In our cost model, we consistently set no wage cost for this phase.
4. What still remains
The wage is no longer your line item. The work still is.
Cover. The tasks don’t disappear. They spread across the team, as extra work, as delayed projects, as tasks nobody fully picks up. In our model we assume 25 percent redistribution during the sick-pay phase, which comes to around €4,950 over 55 working days.
The position stays blocked. You cannot permanently backfill it. A temporary stand-in is findable for routine tasks, but not for a role that carries accumulated institutional knowledge.
Return to work is fully wage-relevant again. Someone coming back after months typically works at reduced capacity initially, but is paid in full. For severe cases we calculate 60 working days at 40 percent reduced output, around €8,640. Shorter, repeat absences are also common on top of that.
Departure risk. It doesn’t arise on the day of the death. It arises in exactly this phase. Someone who has been away a long time and returns without a structured path back leaves the company at an above-average rate, either entirely or permanently into part-time work. An unplanned replacement hire costs €43,069 on average.
The full calculation across the timeline
For the severe case, the loss of a partner or a child:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Special leave, 2 working days | €720 |
| Continued pay, 6 weeks | €10,800 |
| Return to work, 60 working days at 40% reduced output | €8,640 |
| HR and manager time, 30 hours | €1,950 |
| Cover during the sick-pay phase | €4,950 |
| Departure risk, expected value | €10,767 |
| Total | €37,827 |
The phase in which the employer pays nothing at all is, therefore, not the cheapest one. It’s the phase that decides whether the person comes back, and whether they stay.
Around 69 percent of this total is direct cost, meaning wages paid for work that is not performed, or only partially performed. This already sits in your payroll, just not under this heading.
The full calculation across all case types: What a Death in the Family Costs an Employer
What employers should practically take from this
The lever sits before week seven, not after. The more structured the first weeks are, the less often a death in the family turns into a long incapacity to work. A significant part of the burden during this time is not grief, it’s administration: registry office, insurers, banks, contract cancellations, the estate. That work is plannable and delegable, unlike the emotional process.
The path back to work needs to be planned, not waited for. “Get in touch when you’re ready” is the most common and most expensive phrase used in this situation. A defined return with agreed steps lowers departure risk in exactly the group whose departure is the most expensive.
What this means operationally
The six weeks of continued pay are visible and budgeted. The months of sick pay after it look free on the payroll line, but Section 4 is where the real cost actually sits: cover, a blocked position, and a departure risk that builds quietly while nobody is tracking it.
The structure that lowers that risk is the same one that lowers cost in Section 6, an employee who has the registry office, banks, and estate steps already organised has a shorter, more predictable path back. That’s the part an employer can put in place before week seven, not after it: see how Meolea supports employees through the return-to-work phase.
Sources
- §3 EFZG, continued pay during illness
- §616 BGB, temporary prevention from work
- §§44 et seq. SGB V, sick pay (Krankengeld)
- Aufwendungsausgleichsgesetz, U1 levy scheme
- Destatis (Federal Statistical Office): Labour cost per hour worked
- Kompetenz Center Mitarbeiterbindung: Turnover cost