The UK has been found to have the worst sick pay in Europe, according to research by Moorepay.
The software firm manually researched statutory sick pay legislation in 113 countries and ranked them based on the average number of sick days taken yearly in each country using World Health Organisation data and local reports.
British workers take an average of 4.4 sick days per year, three times fewer than the global average of 13 days.
UK employees are entitled to £47.50 for their first week of sick leave, with the first three days of sick leave going unpaid. When measured in international dollars, a hypothetical currency that allows for local purchasing power, this is worth $69.92, seeing the UK ranked 95th in the world.
Luxembourg offers the highest first week of sick pay at an average of €1,279.81 (£1,107.29). In international dollars, Qatar’s sick pay goes the furthest, with employees entitled to 3,620.96 QAR, or $1,644.69 (£761.99), for the first week off.
Ranked second on the list is Singapore at $1,557.59 in international dollars.
The US, South Korea, and Tunisia have the least generous sick pay. While the US and South Korea have no sick pay at all, Tunisian workers only get paid after the first five days.
A Moorepay spokesperson said: “To compare UK sick pay rates to those around the world, Moorepay calculated the amount of sick pay a resident would receive for the first week of sick leave, taking into account the national adjusted net income per capita for each country from the World Bank.
“Then, we converted these figures into US dollars, GBP and international dollars, a hypothetical currency the World Bank uses to create a realistic comparison of the buying power of local currencies, which reflects the comparable amount of goods and services a US dollar would buy in the US.”
