Sick pay and maternity
Which rules govern your case, what the rates and caps are, and who pays which days. This page gives no amount on purpose — since September 2025 the state calculates the benefit and tells the employer what to pay.
Who is claiming
What happened
The rules changed for cases whose FIRST day of incapacity falls on or after 1 September 2025 (law ՀՕ-73-Ն). Earlier cases followed different day-counting — ask an accountant for those.
Several Armenian sites still publish the old rule of five working days paid by the employer. It is now seven calendar days.
The benefit is subject to income tax. No social payment and no stamp duty are withheld from it.
The four thresholds
All of them are multiples of a figure defined inside this law: the minimum wage PLUS the income tax computed on it — 75 000 + 20% = 90 000 ֏ (art. 22(1)). That is the statute's own arithmetic, not an economic gross-up.
The caps do not all apply at the same point. The sick-pay cap is compared with the figure AFTER the 80% has been taken; the maternity cap is compared with the wage itself. Treating both as limits 'on salary' misstates sick pay by a fifth.
A benefit that arrives short is usually a payroll data problem, not a formula problem — and it is fixed at the source, in the personified accounting records.
Payroll and HR records — for every employee, automatically Ask an accountantSick pay and maternity benefits in Armenia
The headline first: the state calculates the amount, not the employer. Article 24(1) of the benefits law has the authorized body assign and calculate the benefit from the e-health system and the personified accounting database. The same body computes the employer's share and passes it to the employer through the tax authority within one working day (parts 5 and 6). There is no application and no document set any more — article 25 was repealed. That is why this page carries no figure.
The rate. Temporary incapacity benefit is 80% of the average monthly wage (article 22(2)), the same for employees and the self-employed. For maternity no percentage is applied at all: the calculation runs on the full average wage. The familiar "100%" is an effect, not statutory wording.
Who pays. For an employee's illness the employer funds the first seven calendar days from its own means, and the state from the eighth calendar day (article 6(2)(1)). Where the employer is exempt from tax-agent duties, the state pays from day one (6(2)(2)). Maternity is funded wholly by the state (6(5)) — the seven-day rule does not apply. A self-employed person's benefit is also entirely state-funded (6(4)).
What it is based on. An employee's average monthly wage is the income of the twelve calendar months preceding the month of incapacity, divided by twelve (article 22(7)). The divisor is a fixed 12, so months without pay drag the average down. The result is then divided by 30.4 and multiplied by the number of calendar days (parts 15, 16, 19).
Two rules that run opposite ways. With more than one employer, maternity sums the incomes (part 9), while sick pay is computed separately for each employer, each with its own seven days (parts 10 and 17).
Tax. The benefit is subject to income tax: article 147(1)(1) of the Tax Code carves these very benefits out of the exempt list. No social payment and no stamp duty are withheld.
Maternity leave is 140 days normally, 155 for a complicated birth and 180 for more than one child (Labour Code article 172). A benefit for a woman who is not employed falls under a different act, the law on state benefits.
Who calculates the benefit?
The authorized body, from the e-health system and the personified accounting database (article 24(1)). It also computes the employer's share and passes it on through the tax authority. No application is needed.
How many days does the employer pay?
The first seven calendar days (article 6(2)(1)). The "five working days" figure still published elsewhere is out of date — since 1 September 2025 it is seven calendar days. For maternity the employer pays nothing.
Is a minimum length of service required?
No. The law requires no qualifying period and no contribution history — only that income tax (or profit tax) was paid and that the incapacity arose during employment or activity (article 4). There is no waiting day either.
Is the benefit taxed?
Income tax, yes: article 147(1)(1) of the Tax Code excludes temporary incapacity and maternity benefits from the exempt list. No social payment and no stamp duty.
What is a micro-business subject entitled to?
No temporary incapacity benefit (article 4(3.1)), but maternity survives — regardless of profit tax paid — and is computed on 50% of the minimum monthly wage (article 4(3.2) and article 22(1)).
Sources: RA law on temporary incapacity and maternity benefits (ՀՕ-160-Ն, as amended by ՀՕ-73-Ն), arts. 4, 6, 12, 18, 21, 22, 24; RA Labour Code art. 172; RA Tax Code art. 147. Rates as of 2026-08-03.