There is a fuller version of this analysis. Occupational sick pay: UK benchmark 2026 reports the same question from the 2026 H1 collection window, with the exact question wording, the base for every figure, the full distribution of answers and a data appendix. This page is the earlier August 2026 analysis, kept as published.
44% of UK organisations offer statutory sick pay only, with no occupational enhancement on top. 39% combine enhanced sick pay with SSP, and 17% pay enhanced occupational sick pay above SSP. For that first group, the April 2026 reform has just moved the floor underneath them (lumi benchmark, n=258 · August 2026).
Key findings
- 44% pay statutory sick pay only; 39% combine enhanced sick pay with SSP; 17% pay enhanced occupational sick pay above SSP (n=258).
- The median organisation provides 4 weeks of enhanced sick pay; the upper quartile provides 13 weeks and the top tenth 26 weeks or more (n=252).
- 36% still apply a waiting period of up to three days before occupational sick pay starts — a design the statutory scheme has now abandoned (n=249).
- 62% have not yet aligned their sick pay to the April 2026 SSP reform: 30% have not reviewed at all and 32% are still reviewing (n=268).
How many UK employers pay more than statutory sick pay?
Statutory-only remains the single most common position: 44% of contributing organisations offer statutory sick pay only. A further 39% run a combination of enhanced sick pay and SSP, and 17% pay enhanced occupational sick pay above SSP. Put the other way, 56% provide some form of enhancement — a majority, but a thin one.
Two things stand out. First, statutory-only is not a fringe position — it is the largest single group, at 44%. Second, where enhancement exists it usually sits alongside SSP rather than replacing it: combination arrangements outnumber purely enhanced schemes by more than two to one (39% against 17%). Sick pay design in the UK is mostly a layer on top of statute, not a substitute for it.
How long does enhanced sick pay last?
Duration is where the generosity gap opens up. Across the 252 organisations reporting a figure — including those with no enhanced provision, who report zero weeks — the median is 4 weeks. The lower quartile sits at zero. The upper quartile provides 13 weeks, the top tenth 26 weeks or more, and the longest schemes run a full year at 52 weeks (n=252).
The mean of 8.9 weeks sits at more than double the median — a long right tail of generous schemes pulling the average up. A headline “typical duration” therefore says little on its own: the honest answer runs from nothing at all to a full year, and where a scheme sits in that range is largely a sector and size story.
Do waiting periods still exist?
Among organisations with occupational sick pay, waiting periods are still common: 36% of contributing organisations apply a waiting period of up to three days before occupational sick pay starts, while 18% apply none. The remaining 45% answered not-applicable — organisations with no occupational scheme, on this question’s slightly different sample. Waiting periods longer than three days are effectively absent from the benchmark (n=249 · percentages may not sum to 100 because of rounding).
That three-day pattern is no accident — it mirrored the old statutory waiting days. The April 2026 reform removed them, so SSP is now payable from the first day of absence. An occupational scheme that keeps its own waiting period has moved from copying the statutory design to contradicting it, and employees will notice the difference on their first sick day.
Have employers caught up with the April 2026 reform?
The reform removed the waiting days and the lower earnings limit, extending sick pay from day one to workers who were previously excluded. It changed every employer’s cost base without any of them touching a policy document. The benchmark’s response so far:
| Alignment status | Share of organisations | Organisations |
|---|---|---|
| Not reviewed | 30% | 80 |
| Reviewing | 32% | 86 |
| Aligned | 29% | 77 |
| Aligned, plus enhanced occupational sick pay | 9% | 25 |
lumi benchmark · n=268 · August 2026
Months after the reform took effect, 62% of organisations have not yet aligned their arrangements — 30% have not reviewed at all, and 32% are mid-review. And among the 38% who have acted, most stopped at compliance: only 9% of contributing organisations paired alignment with enhanced occupational sick pay. The reform has so far raised the floor without moving many ceilings.
What this means for a reward team
- Treat statutory-only as a decision, not a default. If you are in the 44%, the reform has already changed what your policy pays and who it covers — from day one, to more of your workforce. Re-cost it before the next budget round, and decide deliberately whether statutory-only is still your position.
- Check your waiting period against the new statutory design. 36% of contributing organisations still hold a waiting period of up to three days that used to mirror statute. Now that statute pays from day one, a retained waiting period is a visible choice — be ready to explain it.
- Benchmark duration against your own peers, not the headline. A median of 4 weeks hides a range from zero to 52. The figure that survives a board conversation is the one for your sector and size band.
About these figures
Figures are shares, medians or quartiles, as stated against each figure, computed across the lumi benchmark — the reward data of UK organisations that shared it with lumi directly, quality-assured metric by metric against our anchor register of graded published UK sources. As members join, their answers join the same pool. Each organisation reports one headline figure for its main population; comparisons are medians and percentiles, never averages, and when fewer than three organisations answered a question, the whole card is hidden.
Sample sizes are stated per figure and were computed in August 2026. Read the full methodology.