Does anyone know how to take a sick day off from work and get paid for it if you're a contractor, similar to if you were employed with full timer benefits?

Obviously I know that being a contractor, holiday pay and sick leave entitlements are built into your rate, but I was thinking there may be some sort of insurance you could take out if you are sick for a day or two (legitimately of course) and can't get to work.

Does anyone have any ideas?

There are various forms of wage insurance for subcontractors,
heres just 1

www.traderisk.com.au/subcontractors-insurance

kyteryder said...

There are 2 ways to achieve this.

1. Work twice as hard before the sick day, and get the work done.
2. Work twice as hard the day after you come back.

....

If you care so much about it what you do is work half as hard on the days before/after your sickie so you have compensated yourself for the lost income, or tack the odd hour on here and there on the time sheet.

Of course, if you do that on a regular basis you will not last long as a contractor and it will cost you much more than you have saved.

You can get income protection insurance but none of those will cover you for a day off here and there. The excess and inflated premiums would be more expensive than the lost wages for a day or two. It is meant to be when you can't work for an extended period and need to meet your unavoidable expenses (mortgage, kids, etc)

if you want sick leave then go full-time. you can't have your cake and eat it too

There is income protection insurance. However to get insurance that would cover a day off when you have a cold would be so prohibitably expense its not worth having.

Probably the best bet is to get insurance that covers for serious injury or illness such as cancer and just accept the loss of income if you are too sick for work.

stringer said...

move to greece

If you went back to 1984 and Greece, you could have obtained a truck licence and then retired. Apparently no new licences were issued after this time as the truck owners did not want competition and the government listened to them. They farmed their licences to drivers from Albania, Yugoslavia, and other poorer countries.

You just have to look at your income as a contractor over the year, or five, not as a day-to-day thing. If you do you'll go mad.

oceanfire said...



Seems like working a bit extra in the mean time to 'store the nuts for the winter' is the best way to go.

I thought that would be common knowledge? Also, as a 'contractor', I would assume that you would calculate some sick-leave into your hourly rate as an overhead cost. I worked out my hourly rate over a 12 month period based on the similar conditions as I would get on a fixed salary, and simply subtracted the amount of days that I wouldn't work per year (annual leave, sick leave etc.) add all other costs - (work clothing/laundry, accounting costs & time, personal super & insurances etc.) Divide your target salary by the workable hours left & viola...

Btw, not sure about your agreement with your 'employer', but generally speaking, a 'subby' can't work more than 6 months in any year for the one employer, otherwise it becomes an employment arrangement which triggers super, income tax, long service leave etc.