We have recovered: the maximum amount of sick leave will exceed 8 thousand per day.
The maximum daily sick leave payment will be increased by more than 1.5 times in the coming years, from the current 5.7 thousand to 8.5 thousand in 2028, the Social Fund told Izvestia. In 2026 and 2027, the limit will be 6.8 thousand and almost 8 thousand rubles, respectively. The increase is associated with an increase in salaries and the marginal base for insurance premiums. The amount of the allowance is calculated individually based on length of service and income. The maximum amounts will be received by employees with earnings from 230-260 thousand rubles per month and more than eight years of experience. How much does it cost to be sick at home and why Russians are less likely to issue disability certificates — in the Izvestia article.
Who is entitled to the maximum hospital allowance
This year, Russians can receive up to 5,700 rubles for one day of sick leave. In 2026, the maximum benefit will increase by 20% to 6.8 thousand, in 2027 it will reach 7.9 thousand, and by 2028 it will amount to 8.5 thousand. Thus, the payout limit will increase by about 1.5 times in three years. This was reported to Izvestia by the press service of the Social Fund (SFR). It is worth mentioning right away that we are talking about amounts before personal income tax deduction.
The amount of compensation depends on the length of insurance and the official salary.:
If a person has been working for less than five years, 60% of the average earnings for the previous two years are paid.;
from five to eight years — 80%;
more than eight years — 100%, but not above the maximum limit.
For example, if the sick leave is issued in 2026, the salary before tax for 2024 and 2025 will be taken into account when calculating the benefit. The average daily earnings are determined by the formula: the total amount of accrued salary for the previous two years is divided by 730 (a fixed number of days in this period).
At the same time, there is a limit on the amount of income that is taken into account when calculating benefits, the so—called marginal base for calculating insurance premiums. In 2024, it was 2.2 million rubles, and in 2025 it is 2.8 million. If the employee has earned more than this amount, the established maximum is still used when assigning sick leave. There is also a minimum threshold — the amount of payment cannot be lower than the minimum wage.
For example, in 2024, a person earned 80 thousand rubles per month — only 960 thousand per year, and in 2025, his income increased to 100 thousand, or 1.2 million per year. The average daily figure in this case will be about 3 thousand. With six years of experience, the employee is entitled to 80% of this amount — 2.4 thousand rubles. Taking into account the income tax (13%) on his hands, he will receive about 2.1 thousand per day of illness. Thus, a week on sick leave will bring him about 14.7 thousand in 2026.
To assess how profitable it is for him to apply for sick leave, the amount of payment should be compared with the weekly earnings of a person in 2026.
Therefore, in order for the hospital to be equal to the maximum of 6.8 thousand per day in 2026 (before personal income tax), you need at least eight years of experience, as well as a salary of 183 thousand per month (in 2024) and 233 thousand (in 2025), Izvestia calculated.
The increase in the maximum amount of payments is associated with an increase in the marginal base from which employers pay insurance premiums, the Social Fund explained. According to the draft budget of the SFR (Izvestia has studied it), in 2026 the base will amount to almost 3 million rubles. This indicator is calculated based on the projected average salary of about 108 thousand per month (the more people earn, the more contributions companies deduct for them, which means that the fund receives more money and can increase payments).
In the next two years, the base will increase to 3.2 million and 3.5 million, respectively. Thus, in order to receive the maximum 7.9 thousand rubles per day on sick leave in 2027, in addition to the length of service over eight years, earnings of at least 233 thousand rubles per month in 2025 and 250 thousand in 2026 will be required.
And in order to reach the upper limit of 8.5 thousand per day in 2028, you need to earn at least 250 thousand and 267 thousand in the previous two years.
Is it profitable to take sick leave
It is beneficial to apply for sick leave only if you have more than eight years of experience and earn less than the maximum base for calculating insurance premiums, said Natalia Chelukhina, Professor at the Department of Global Financial Markets and Fintech at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.
At the same time, the maximum payments are available only to specialists with high salaries, such as managers, IT specialists and financiers, Igor Rastorguev, a leading analyst at AMarkets, added. And increasing the limits makes recovery more profitable.
— At the same time, the average amount of sick leave is now about 2 thousand rubles per day. In general, this is beneficial for those who are really ill: a person receives money, albeit less, can fully recover and at the same time does not lose his job," the expert noted.
At the same time, Russians began to take sick leave noticeably less often than even in Soviet times, Igor Rastorguev emphasized. The reason is simple — more and more people are working remotely or negotiating with an employer in order not to lose income. After all, even the maximum 5.7 thousand rubles a day today does not always reach the actual earnings of many specialists.
According to the service "Work.<url>", only 8% of Russians take sick leave and stay at home. As Natalia Chelukhina noted, the survey results show that people most often refuse sick leave due to fear of losing their job, the inability to find a replacement and a significant loss in salary.
Employers are also not particularly interested in taking sick leave, since the first three days are paid for at their expense, and the Social Fund pays for the remaining period, said Yulia Dolzhenkova, a professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. According to her, in many organizations, employees prefer to take days off at their own expense or go to work before fully recovering. As a result, this can lead to an increase in morbidity and additional burden on the healthcare system.
At the same time, new rules came into force in September 2025, limiting the frequency of sick leave, Natalia Chelukhina recalled. If an employee has issued a piece of paper more than four times in the last six months, the document will be issued for a maximum of three days upon the fifth request. In the future, the decision of the medical commission will be required for the extension.
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