Sick reports and excused leave: who pays what

Gülay Hanım the pastry-shop owner's Tuesday morning

Tuba has been at the counter of Gülay Hanım's pastry shop for two years. On Tuesday morning a message came: "I've got a fever, the doctor gave me a 5-day sick report." Gülay Hanım first wrote "get well soon". Then questions came to mind: Will I pay for these five days? Does SGK (Social Security Institution) pay anything? Who do I show the report to?

Two taps, one glass

On sick-report days, two taps can fill the employee's glass. One is your tap, that is, the salary. The other is SGK's tap, that is, the temporary incapacity allowance (geçici iş göremezlik ödeneği). In everyday speech this is called "report money" (rapor parası). If both taps are turned on fully at the same time, the glass overflows: the employee is paid twice for the same day. That is why, for sick-report days, you decide at the start which tap is opened and by how much.

When does SGK pay, and how much?

Under Law No. 5510 art. 18, in case of illness:

• The allowance starts from the 3rd day of the report. SGK does not pay for the first two days.
• The employee must have had at least 90 days of short-term insurance premiums notified in the one year before the report started. These days may have come from different workplaces.
• The allowance is two thirds of the daily earnings, worked out from the earnings in the last three months, for outpatient treatment, and half for inpatient treatment.

In a work accident or an occupational disease, the 90-day condition is not required and the allowance starts from the first day. In such a case, call your mali müşavir (accountant) right away; the notification rules are different.

SGK pays the allowance directly to the employee. You do not take money out of your cash box on SGK's behalf.

Does this apply to you? If the employee does not have 90 days of premiums in the one year before the report (days at previous workplaces count too), SGK does not give the allowance. This happens often with an employee insured for the first time, or one who has had a long break. In that case, ask your mali müşavir how to pay the wage for the sick-report days.

Your job: the "did not work" notification

Before SGK pays, it expects confirmation from the employer: "This person did not work at the workplace on the sick-report days." This notification is made either on the visit (vizite) screen in e-SGK ("Çalışılmadığına Dair Bildirim Girişi", the entry of the notification that no work was done) or by showing the sick-report days in the monthly return with "rest" (istirahat) as the reason for missing days (SGK Circular 2013/19). The deadline is the last filing day of the SGK return for the month in which the report ends; under today's system, that is the 26th of the month after the month the report ends. For a report that ends at the end of March, the last day is 26 April. Most of the time your mali müşavir does this; your job is to pass the news to them the same day.

The report the doctor writes goes into the SGK system on its own and appears on the vizite screen in e-SGK. Gülay Hanım does not need to wait for a paper report. Don't call the employee in to work while the report is running: if the notification says "worked", SGK does not give the allowance for those days.

For 1–2 day reports for illness, this notification is not compulsory; SGK does not give an allowance for those days. In work accidents, occupational diseases and maternity cases such as giving birth, however, the length does not matter. If the notification is not made on time, SGK imposes an administrative fine (idari para cezası) (Law No. 5510 art. 102): if it is never made, 16,515 lira in 2026 (half the monthly gross minimum wage); if it is made late, 3,303 lira (one tenth). So even if you are late, notifying on the day you notice cuts the fine to one fifth.

What is deducted from the salary?

Here the word offsetting (mahsup) comes up. Offsetting means deducting two amounts from each other and paying the difference. Labour Law art. 48 says this for an employee on a monthly wage: SGK pays the employee report money, and you deduct that much from the salary and pay the difference. The amount you can deduct is what SGK actually paid, not more; the Court of Cassation (Yargıtay) stressed this once again in a decision in 2025. This way, the glass does not overflow.

A simple example: Tuba's gross salary is 45,000 lira, and her daily pay is 1,500 lira. Let's assume SGK pays about 1,000 lira a day for the 3rd, 4th and 5th days. In the practice often seen for employees on a fixed monthly salary:

Ignoring tax and premiums, Tuba receives 7,500 lira in total for the five days. The real payroll comes out a little different: tax and premiums are deducted from the salary, but not from the report money. The law does not say whether the deduction is made from the gross or the net wage; practice differs from workplace to workplace. Your mali müşavir does the calculation.

This is not the only way. For an employee on a daily or hourly wage, the pay for sick-report days may not be paid at all. Some employers pay the full salary and sign a protocol with SGK; SGK then gives the report money not to the employee but to the employer, by deducting it from the employer's premium debt (SGK Circular 2016/21). Which one applies depends on your contract and your workplace practice. The way you choose also changes the days and earnings notified to SGK; make the decision together with your mali müşavir and write it into the contract.

On the timesheet, sick-report days are marked as "sick report": Paying wages and the timesheet.

Excused leave

Under Labour Law Additional art. 2, paid leave is given in the following cases:

The leave for a spouse giving birth was increased from 5 days to 10 days by Law No. 7578, which came into force on 1 May 2026. The same Law also extended the post-birth maternity leave of a female employee; in such a case, talk to your mali müşavir separately.

This leave is not deducted from annual leave. It is marked under its own name on the timesheet. You can ask the employee for the document showing the situation (marriage, birth or death certificate) and put it in the personnel file.

Gülay Hanım passed the report to her mali müşavir that same day. When Tuba came back, there was a box of biscuits on her table and a short note explaining how it would show on the payroll.