This paper evaluates an expansion of employer-mandated sick leave insurance in the French private sector that took place in 2008. The reform is two-folded: the maximal employer waiting period to benefit from complementary payment from the employer was reduced from 10 to 7 days and the minimum required tenure to be entitled from 3 years to 1 year. We use a difference-in-differences method in which control groups are defined according to the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) employees belong to. Indeed, thanks to complementary insurance provided by CBAs, employees were not affected the same way by the reform.

 We find global significant positive effect of the reform but with great variations according to employees' gender and category. The reduction of minimum tenure requirement was concentrated on a less numerous group but had a bigger impact from the affected individuals viewpoint than the waiting-period fold of the reform.