[j_jochem]

In Germany, when an employee has been sick for 6 weeks and is still unable to come to work, the employers obligation to pay them for their sick leave ends and the employee is moved over to Krankengeld, which is about 75% of their monthly net income and is paid for by the mandatory public health insurance.

There's also non-mandatory corporate insurance products for employers that will pay for the mandatory sick leave. However, this is usually not affordable for very small companies and large organizations are usually better of absorbing the risk themselves and not paying the insurer a premium.

[alkonaut]

Sounds like it's pretty similar across Europe then (My Example was Sweden). 6 weeks I suppose can be pretty expensive small business compared to the 13 days here. But both systems are clearly tailored towards being friendly to employees rather than employers, which is (as usual) the difference to the US.