What sick leave pays, and on what conditions

Camille, a self-employed graphic designer for fourteen months, breaks her wrist. She declares €38,000 of annual income and expects half of it during her leave, as an employee would. She will receive €52.05 a day, from the fourth day onwards. Before reading on: where does that figure come from, and why the fourth day?

Three conditions, checkable before any leave

The right is not automatic. It first assumes seniority: article D622-1 of the Social Security Code requires the insured to have been affiliated for at least one year on the date the incapacity for work is medically established.

It then assumes contributions are up to date, both health and daily-allowance contributions. It finally assumes sufficient income: below a floor, the allowance exists in law but amounts to zero, which comes to the same thing for whoever is waiting on it.

The computation: one seven-hundred-and-thirtieth

The daily allowance is one seven-hundred-and-thirtieth of average annual professional income. The divisor is not 365 but twice it: the allowance represents, by construction, half of an average daily income. It is the employee's fifty per cent, expressed another way.

The ceiling for craftsmen and traders

The income at the numerator is capped by the annual social security ceiling. A craftsman or trader whose income exceeds that ceiling therefore receives no more: the allowance tops out at €65.84 gross a day as of 1 January 2026.

That figure can be recovered by hand. Forty-eight thousand and sixty euros divided by seven hundred and thirty give €65.84. The ceiling is not a separately decided number: it is the formula applied to the social security ceiling, and it therefore follows it each year.

That per-leave rule changes the reach of the scheme. A condition causing several short interruptions is far less covered than a single leave of the same total length, although the loss of income is identical — unless it is recognised as a long-term illness, which bears the waiting period only once.

Why a three-year average

Taking the average of three calendar years smooths the swings of a self-employed activity, whose income varies more than a salary. The trade-off is a lag: the allowance reflects what the activity was worth, not what it is worth at the moment of the leave.

The lag cuts both ways. A growing activity is under-compensated; a shrinking one is compensated on the better years behind it. For someone starting out, the effect compounds with the seniority condition and leaves the whole first year largely uncovered.

One point is easy to miss: entitlement is assessed at the date the incapacity is medically established, not at the date the leave is declared. Someone who lets an affiliation lapse and resumes shortly after may find the seniority clock has restarted from zero — unless maintained rights from the previous activity cover the leave.

How long a prescription may run

A first prescription of leave may not exceed thirty-one days. An extension is limited to sixty-two days, unless the health professional justifies a longer period given the situation. Those limits govern the document, not the entitlement itself.

Allowances are paid roughly every fourteen days, not on a monthly cycle. For a self-employed person whose costs fall monthly, that lag matters as much as the amount itself: cash is needed to bridge the gap between the start of the leave and the first payment landing.

• Check your affiliation seniority, which must reach twelve months on the date of the medical finding.
• Make sure your health and daily-allowance contributions are up to date.
• Confirm that average income over the three preceding calendar years clears the floor.
• Plan the cash for the three waiting days and for the delay before the first payment arrives.
• Note the date of the medical finding, since entitlement is assessed on that date and not on the declaration.