Sick leave pay in Bulgaria in 2026: what the employer covers

The cost of sick leave in Bulgaria is split in two. Days one and two of each absence are the employer’s, paid at 70% of what the person earns on an average day in gross terms. Day three onwards belongs to the National Social Security Institute (NSSI, НОИ), which pays the employee a benefit directly. That split comes from Article 40(5) of the Social Insurance Code.

The employer’s share used to be longer. Before 1 January 2024 it covered 3 days, and some older guides and payroll templates still say so. For 2026 the rule is 2 working days, and that is what our payroll applies.

Two features of the rule are easy to miss. The count is in working days, so a sick note that starts on a Friday puts Friday and the following Monday on the employer’s account, not the weekend. And the 70% is calculated on gross pay, not on the lower insurable income used for contributions, which matters for anyone paid above the monthly ceiling.

On the payslip, the employer-paid days show as sick pay rather than salary for those dates, and the rest of the month is paid as normal. If the absence carries on beyond day 2, the employer pays no salary for the remaining days of absence at all.

Everything after day 2 sits outside the employer’s payroll cost. The NSSI pays the benefit to the employee, and the employer’s role is to pass on the information the institute needs to work it out.

The NSSI benefit replaces 80% of insurable income, measured as a daily average, for each day of incapacity after the second. Where the absence follows a work accident or an occupational disease, the rate is 90%. In both cases the daily benefit cannot exceed the employee’s average daily net pay, so nobody earns more by being off sick than by working.

There is a qualifying condition for ordinary illness. The person needs at least 6 months of social insurance before they can draw the general sickness benefit (Social Insurance Code Articles 40 and 41). New hires in their first months of insured work should be told this plainly, because the employer-paid days still apply but the NSSI benefit may not.

The benefit is based on insurable income, and insurable income stops at the monthly ceiling: €2,300 a month since 1 August 2026, and €2,111.64 in the seven months before that. For a well-paid developer the NSSI amount is therefore worked out on the capped figure, which replaces a smaller share of real pay than it would for someone on a middle salary. A long absence can mean a noticeable drop in income, and it is worth explaining that at onboarding rather than in the middle of an illness.

Work accidents also have their own contribution line. The work accident and occupational disease fund (TZPB) is paid by the employer alone, at between 0.4% and 1.1% of insurable income depending on the business activity; our software example assumes 0.4%. Office work sits at the bottom of that range.

The institute publishes its own guidance on benefits at noi.bg. The amounts are decided there, not by the employer.

Sick pay from day 3 is funded by the general sickness and maternity fund (Общо заболяване и майчинство), one of the social security funds collected every month through payroll. The fund rate is 3.5% of insurable income, split 2.10% employer to 1.40% employee.

Both shares sit inside the familiar 2026 totals, 18.92% on the employer side and 13.78% deducted from the employee, for someone born after 1959 working in software. The National Revenue Agency receives the payment, with a deadline of the 25th in the month after the pay month, and the NSSI then draws on the fund to pay benefits. Our overview of Bulgarian social security for employers shows how the other funds fit around it.

Age makes no difference to the sickness line. For an employee born before 1960 there is no universal pension fund contribution and the pension split changes, but the employer total still comes to 18.92% at a 0.4% work accident rate, and the 2.10% and 1.40% sickness shares are the same.

For the €40,000-a-year Sofia developer in our cost model, the employer’s sickness and maternity contribution comes to €551.91 for 2026, and the employee’s share to €367.94. Those amounts are low because the ceiling caps the insurable base at €26,281.48 for the year, well under the €40,000 gross.

The 2 employer-paid days are a separate cost. They are not a contribution and do not show up in the fund line. They are ordinary payroll expense, paid only when someone is actually ill.

The annual employer cost we quote for Bulgaria leaves sick pay out, because nobody knows in advance how often a given person will be ill. Our breakdown of the employer cost of a Bulgarian employee arrives at about €44,972 for the €40,000 developer in 2026, before any sick days and before the EOR fee.

What you can model is the shape of the risk. Because the employer’s share is capped at two working days per absence, a person with one long illness costs the employer far less in sick pay than a person with several short ones. Five separate two-day absences mean ten employer-paid days. One three-week absence means two.

The rate also softens the cost. On an employer-paid sick day the business carries 70% of a normal day’s gross pay, and the work for that day still is not done. If cover is needed, that cost is usually larger than the sick pay itself, and it is the figure most managers forget.

A rough planning approach is to keep a small allowance per head for employer-paid sick days and review it after the first year, once there is real absence data. Sick days arrive unevenly, sometimes several in one month across a small team, so a buffer works better than a precise forecast. A team of five in Sofia will show a different pattern from a single hire, and the first year’s numbers are the best guide for the second.

The employer pays nothing during maternity leave in Bulgaria. Maternity leave (отпуск поради бременност и раждане) runs to 410 days for each child; the 45 days leading up to the birth must be taken. The benefit, again from the NSSI, is 90% of the mother’s insurable income averaged over the two years before, and she qualifies once she has 12 months of insurance.

Once the child is 6 months old, the rest of the leave can pass to the father with the mother’s consent. Fathers get their own 15 days of paternity leave, starting when mother and baby leave hospital. On top of that comes a 2-month entitlement that belongs to the father alone and can be used at any time before the child’s eighth birthday. Notice of 10 working days is needed for those 2 months, and they can be taken in one block or in parts.

Paternity leave is paid by the NSSI, not the employer. For a small team the useful detail is the 10 working days’ notice for the 2-month block, which gives a manager two weeks to rearrange work before it starts.

When maternity leave ends, either parent may stay home to raise the child up to the age of 2, with the NSSI paying a flat monthly benefit. Each parent can also take 6 months’ unpaid leave until the child is 8.

For an employer, all of this is mostly about planning cover and keeping records straight, not about cost. The salary stops and the benefit comes from the NSSI. The same ceiling logic applies: the benefit is worked out from insurable income, so high earners see a larger gap between their salary and the benefit.

The employee’s job is to see a doctor, obtain a sick note (болничен лист, bolnichen) and let the employer know promptly. The employer’s job is to record the absence, put the two employer days through payroll and pass the information the NSSI needs to calculate and pay the benefit from day 3.

• Record the first and last day of incapacity as stated on the sick note.
• Count the employer-paid days in working days, not calendar days.
• Pay those days at 70% of the average daily gross figure in the usual monthly run.
• Leave the days from the third onwards out of salary, since the NSSI pays them.
• Keep the sick note on file with the rest of the payroll records.

The order matters more than it looks. A sick note entered late can mean the employer-paid days land in the wrong payroll month, and the NSSI cannot start its calculation until it has the data. Most problems with Bulgarian sick pay are timing problems, not rate problems.

Sick leave runs through our payroll in the ordinary way once Employer of Record Bulgaria holds the contract. We receive the sick note details, pay the 2 employer-paid working days on the next payslip, and handle the information flow that lets the NSSI pay the benefit from day 3. The employer-paid days appear as a separate line on the payslip.

Two things stay with you. First, managing the work while someone is away, which no payroll process can solve. Second, explaining to the hire, before they ever need it, how the 2 employer days and the NSSI benefit fit together, so that a smaller payment after a long illness is not a surprise.

A useful test while you weigh up providers: have every candidate walk you through how they process a sick note and what the employee sees on the payslip. Sick notes feature among the practical checks for picking an EOR in Bulgaria, and the answer says a lot about how payroll is run. For the full sequence from contract to first pay, see how a Bulgarian hire moves from signed offer to payday.

Q01How much sick pay does a Bulgarian employer pay?+

A.Two working days per absence, at 70% of average daily gross pay. Everything after that is an NSSI benefit, not salary.

Q02How much does the NSSI pay a sick employee in 2026?+

A.Normally 80% of insurable income as a daily average; 90% if the cause is a work accident or occupational disease. It never exceeds average daily net pay.

Q03Does a new employee get sick pay from day one?+

A.The 2 employer-paid days apply from the start. The NSSI benefit for general sickness needs at least 6 months of social insurance.

Q04Does the employer pay anything during maternity leave?+

A.No. Maternity benefit comes from the NSSI for up to 410 days, at 90% of insurable income averaged over 24 months, once the mother has 12 months of insurance.

Q05Is sick pay included in the employer cost estimates?+

A.No. Our worked example of about €44,972 a year for a €40,000 salary in 2026 excludes the employer-paid sick days, because they depend on actual absence.