General earnings-related allowance

You are entitled to earning-related allowance if you have fulfilled the membership condition and the work requirement, you have registered as an unemployed jobseeker with the employment authority and there are no other obstacles to payment.

In addition to the unemployed, those who are laid off and those working part-time must also register as full-time job seekers with the the employment authority. You must register as a job seeker no later than the day from which you apply for earnings-related allowance. The allowance must be applied for within three months.

Membership Condition

The minimum time you must continuously be a member of the unemployment fund before you can receive earnings-related allowance.

Starting from 2 September 2024, the membership condition is 12 months.

(Read more in the section: Membership condition)

Work Requirement

The work requirement refers to the period of work that you must accumulate before you are eligible for earnings-related allowance. You can only accumulate the work requirement during unemployment fund membership.

Starting from 2 September 2024, the work requirement needed for earnings-related allowance was extended from 26 calendar weeks (approximately 6 months) to 12 months.

If you have accumulated both hourly-based and income-based work requirement due to the legislative change on 2 September 2024, both will be considered when calculating your total work requirement. The work requirement does not need to be accumulated through continuous employment; it can be fulfilled within a 28 month review period.

Starting from 2 September 2024, the membership condition is 12 months. The 12-month membership condition is applied if your work requirement is fulfilled on or after 2 September 2024.

Previous membership with another unemployment fund will be considered towards the membership condition if you have joined the Unemployment Fund of Service Union United within one month of leaving your previous unemployment fund.

Until 1 September 2024, the membership condition is 26 weeks (approximately 6 months).

Starting from 2 September 2024, the work requirement needed for earnings-related allowance will be 12 months. In addition, the work requirement will be accrued based on your income, i.e. on the salary paid for work. The work requirement takes into account those calendar month during which salary has been paid.

You must fulfill the 12-month work requirement if the work requirement has been partially or entirely accumulated from wages earned from work performed on or after 2 September 2024.

Work months are accumulated as follows:

• If you have received a salary of at least 930 euros, one full month of employment is added to the work requirement.
• If you have received a salary of 465-929 euros, half a month of employment is added to the work requirement.

Two half-months of employment equals one full month of employment. The work requirement can therefore be fulfilled, for example, from 11 full months and two half-months of employment.

The work requirement does not need to be accumulated in continuous months but it has to be fulfilled within a 28-month review period. Only work done during a unemployment fund membership is counted towards the work requirement.

If the work requirement includes both weeks accumulated based on hours before 2 September 2024, and employment months after 2 September 2024, the weeks accumulated based on hours will be automatically converted into income-based employment months. The conversion is done so that 4 weeks of employment always constitutes one employment month. Of the remaining weeks, 1-2 weeks form a half-month and 3 weeks a full employment month.

The length of the work requirement is 26 weeks if the last week to be considered for the work requirement ends on or before 1 September 2024.

The work requirement accumulates based on hours worked until 1 September 2024. Calendar weeks with at least 18 hours of work or other paid time (e.g. paid vacation) are counted towards the work requirement.

The work requirement must be fulfilled within a 28-month review period. This review period is generally counted backwards from the date of registration as a jobseeker. The review period can be extended for a valid reason, such as parental leave, childcare leave, various disability periods or full-time studies. The review period can be extended by up to seven years.

Hours-based work requirement weeks accumulated by 1 September 2024 will be automatically converted into income-based employment months. Conversion is done so that 4 weeks of employment always forms one work month. From the remaining weeks, 1-2 weeks form a half-month and 3 weeks form a full work month.

Basic component

Earnings-related allowance consists of a basic component and an earnings-related component. The basic component of earnings-related allowance is the same for everybody and the full daily allowance is always at least the basic component amount.

In 2024 the basic component is 37,21 € / day. The basic component is equal to Kela's basic unemployment allowance.

Earnings-related component

The earnings component paid in addition to the basic component depends on your income. The earnings component is 45 % of the difference between your daily wage and the basic component. If your monthly wage is higher than 3534,95€, the earnings component is 20 % of the wages above this amount. 

The amount of earnings-related allowance is calculated from your earnings in the period immediately before unemployment. The calculation takes into account regular wage income in the 26 weeks of the work requirement. Holiday pay and sick pay are also taken into account in the work requirement period. If your working hours were reduced due to partial pension, partial disability pension, partial childcare leave or partial sickness allowance, the period preceding this is calculated. In these cases you must submit a wage certificate for the period covered by the work requirement. 

Only regular income is taken into account in the calculation. Profit-related bonuses, holiday bonuses or holiday compensation, for example, are not regular income so they are not taken into account in the calculation. 

A percentage deduction is made from wages before daily allowances are calculated. This deduction corresponds to an employee’s employment pension and unemployment insurance contributions and the daily allowance contribution of health insurance (3,76 % in 2024). Therefore the wages that daily allowances are determined on are always lower than actual average monthly wages. 

Full earnings-related allowance is at most 90 % of the daily wage that the allowance is based on. If you are paid an increased earnings-related component for a period of employment promotion, the daily allowance can at most be the daily wage that the allowance is based on. 

Re-calculating the allowance

Your daily allowances are re-calculated when your work requirement is met if it is one year or more since the allowances were calculated and payment began. If you accrue the 26-week work requirement again within one year of the previous calculation and the first paid day, the level of daily allowances is not re-calculated and there is no new waiting period. 

Staggering of earnings-related allowance (starting from 2 September 2024)

Staggering means that the amount of earnings-related allowance will decrease as the duration of the unemployment increases. The allowance will be staggered if the calculation of the benefit is based on the new income-based work requirement on or after 2 September 2024. The allowance will not be staggered if payment of the allowance’s maximum period has started on or before 1 September 2024.

The amount of the benefit will decrease to:

• 80 % of the full allowance after 40 benefit days (approximately 8 weeks)
• 75 % of the full allowance after 170 benefit days (approximately 34 weeks)

Remember that earnings-related allowance can never be smaller than Kela’s basic daily allowance. In addition, if you fulfill your 12-month work requirement again, the amount of the allowance returns to full and the maximum payment period resets.

Daily allowance calculator

You can estimate your daily allowance with TYJ's daily allowance calculator or the calculator in our eService. 

Employment-promoting services

Find information about how participating in an employment-promoting service may affect the amount of your allowance.

Earnings-related allowance is paid for five days a week. Length of the maximum payment period depends on your work history prior to the unemployment.  The maximum payment period of earnings-related allowance is always reset when the work requirement filled again.

The maximum period of earnings-related allowance is: 

• 300 days if your employment history is less than three years when unemployment starts. 
• 400 days if your employment history is more than three years when unemployment starts. 
• 500 days if you are at least 58 years old when you meet the work requirement and have worked at least 5 years in the last 20 years.  You may also be entitled to 500 days if the maximum allowance period began before 1.1.2017. 

Right to additional days

Earnings-related allowance can be paid after the maximum period has been met as “additional days” up to the end of the calendar month when you reach the age of 65 years.

A new change security scheme has been introduced from the beginning of 2023 for those who were born in 1965 or after. Change security will replace the right to additional days gradually by the year 2030. 

You may be entitled to additional days if:

• you were born between 1957-1960 and turned 61 before the maximum allowance period was reached
• you were born between 1961-1962 and turned 62 before the maximum allowance period was reached
• you were born in 1963 and turned 63 before the maximum period was reached
• you were born in 1964 and turned 64 before the maximum period was reached

The age requirement is met also if you turn 61-64 on the same day that the maximum payment period ends.

A further requirement is that you have worked at least 5 years in the last 20 years.  

The Unemployment Fund checks your entitlement to additional days when the maximum allowance period is reached.  

The government has decided to remove the right to additional days in the future. This will apply for applicants, who were born 1965 or later.

Earnings-related allowance is a benefit, so it is taxed differently from wages. 

In accordance with the Tax Administration’s instructions, at least 25% tax is withheld from earnings-related allowance if the tax information the fund has is for wage income. 

If you want, you can order a revised tax card for benefits from the Tax Administration. This is easy to do, for example in the Tax Administration’s MyTax service.When you select PAM Unemployment Fund/Palvelualojen työttömyyskassa as the benefit payer in the service, the unemployment fund can access the information electronically the next day. 

Please note that the revised tax card must be specifically for benefits. If the revised tax card is for wage income, 25% tax is still withheld from the benefit. 

Read more about taxation of unemployment benefits on the Tax Administration website. 

The waiting period is applied when you first apply for earnings-related unemployment benefits or when your work requirement is met again.

However, the waiting period will not be applied if your work requirement is fulfilled again before 2 September 2024, less than a year has passed since the start of your previous benefit period (your first day paid), and the waiting period was applied at the beginning of that period.

The waiting period is a period equivalent to seven working days and earnings-related allowance is not paid for this period. The waiting period can only be taken into account for periods when your job search has been active with the TE Office and there have been no other obstacles to the payment of daily allowances, such as a suspension period. A maximum of five days’ waiting period can accrue in a week.  

For part-time workers, the waiting period is calculated in hours. The difference between full working hours and hours worked is counted towards the waiting period and the wating period is met when the number of hours equivalent to seven working days is reached.The waiting period must be accrued during eight consecutive calendar weeks. It is not counted for periods when working hours exceed 80% of a full-time worker’s maximum working hours. 

A waiting period must be counted in a period of eight consecutive weeks. Days outside this period can’t be counted as a part of a waiting period. The waiting period does not accrue during the periodization of the holiday compensation (see the following section). The waiting period begins once the holiday compensation period has ended.

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If you are paid holiday compensation at the end of a full-time job that has lasted for two weeks or more, the compensation will be periodized. This means that you will not be entitled to unemployment benefit for the duration of the periodization.

When your holiday compensation is periodized, the paid compensation is divided by your average daily salary. This is used to calculate how many days the compensation is equivalent to. The number of days corresponds to the period for which you are not entitled to daily earnings allowance.

A holiday compensation equal to one month’s salary postpones the commencement of the daily allowance by approximately one month. Only weekdays are taken into account in the periodization , i.e., a maximum of 5 days in a week.

Remember that the waiting period (see the previous section) does not accrue during the periodization of the holiday compensation. The waiting period begins once the holiday compensation period has ended.

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Example #1

Your daily wage is 100 € / day. You are paid 1 000 € holiday compensation at the end of the employment relationship. The compensation corresponds to 10 days' salary (1000 € : 100 € = 10 days). Your daily allowance application is rejected for ten business days (earnings-related daily allowance is paid for 5 days / calendar week), starting from the day after the end of the employment relationship.

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Example #2

Your full-time employment, which has lasted more than two weeks, ends on Sunday 7 January 2024. You have registered as a job seeker at the TE Office from January 8, 2024. You have not received earnings-related daily allowance before so a waiting period of 7 days must be accrued after the periodization.

You receive a 1000 € holiday compensation for unused vacation days and your calculated daily salary is 100 €. The duration equal to the holiday compensation if 10 business days (1000 € : 100 € = 10 days). Your holiday compensation is periodized from the day following the end of the employment relationship, i.e. from 8 January 2024. The period is 10 business days, which means that from 8 to 19 January 2024, you are not entitled to daily allowance.

The waiting period is accrued after the periodization of the holiday compensation, i.e. from 20 January 2024. The waiting period is 7 days long (from 1 January 2024 forward) and only weekdays are taken into account. Your waiting period of 7 business days will accrue between January 20 and 30, 2024.

Therefore, you will be paid daily allowance from January 31 2024.

A suspension period is an unpaid time limit set by the Employment and Economic Development Office.Daily allowances are not paid for the period of the suspension period and the waiting period is also not taken.The length of the suspension period varies from 7 days to 45 days depending on the basis for it. You can read more about this on the TE Office website. 

Annual holiday, holiday pay and holiday bonuses may reduce the amount of daily allowances paid or prevent payment altogether. The effect of these depends on whether the holiday and related payments were accrued from full-time work or part-time work.  

If you have been laid off from full-time work, you are not entitled to daily allowances for annual holiday periods. Enter holiday periods in your application.  You are entitled to unemployment allowance for holiday periods earned from part-time work on condition that your job search has been active with the TE Office.

Enter holiday days in your application according to the holiday hours paid. Holiday pay and holiday bonuses are taken into account in the adjustment in the application period in which they were paid to the applicant’s account. Work where the contractual working hours do not exceed 80% of the total working hours in the collective agreement is considered part-time work. Read more about adjusted daily allowances or entitlement to daily allowances in lay-off situations.