Home Income security Earnings-related daily allowance Working condition
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- Membership
- Earnings-related daily allowance
- Applying for earnings-related daily allowance
- Adjusted earnings-related daily allowance
- Lay-off
- TE Services
- Social benefits
- Studying
- Entrepreneurship
- International circumstances
- Mobility allowance
- Transition security
- Job alternation leave
- Appeal procedure
- Recovery
Working condition
The working condition is the main condition for the earnings-related daily allowance. You can apply to us for an earnings-related daily allowance if you are one of our members and have fulfilled the working condition.
You meet the working condition when you have accumulated a total of 12 months of qualifying work during the 28-month reference period.
Accumulation of the working condition
The working condition is based on the wages you have been paid. The salary is taken into account gross, i.e. before tax.
You accumulate one month of working condition when you have been paid at least 930 € in a calendar month.
You accumulate half a month of working condition when you have been paid between 465 € and 929 € during the calendar month.
The working condition is met when you have accumulated a total of 12 months of working condition.
All statutory contributions and taxes must have been paid on the salary. We can only count wages that are at least in line with the collective agreement or the law as part of the working condition. The minimum monthly wage for full-time work under the Unemployment Insurance Act is 1 430 €.
It is therefore possible that your salary exceeds the 930 € per month limit for the accumulation of the working condition, but it has been below the minimum wage set by the Unemployment Insurance Act or the collective agreement, in which case the working condition will not be accumulated despite the fact that you have exceeded the euro limit.
Wage-subsidised work does not accumulate any working condition. However, as an exception, wage-subsidised work does accumulate a working condition after 10 months for the long-term unemployed over 60 years of age and for the partially incapable.
The working condition takes into account a established income from wages and salaries. Established earnings are:
- annual leave pay, notice pay and other basic pay for work;
- evening work allowance, shift work allowance, personal and job-related allowances, bonus for special circumstances, Saturday and Sunday work allowances, night work allowance, overtime allowance, contract basis and holiday pay and other similar allowances and compensations;
- remuneration treated as wages;
- allowances for standby duty and on-call duty;
- performance-related pay such as commission, bonus and royalties;
- taxable benefits in kind or staff benefits;
- taxable reimbursement of expenses;
- the employer’s contribution to a savings and life insurance premium;
- the employer’s contribution to an individual voluntary pension insurance scheme, in so far as it is taxable;
- the remuneration paid in respect of the duties of shop steward and employee protection delegate and the remuneration paid in respect of the cooperation under the Act on Cooperation between Employers and Employees in State Agencies and Institutions;
- wages paid by way of wage guarantee, but not deducted under the Wage Guarantee Act, to the extent that they would be earnings taken into account as income for the purposes of the daily wage allowance paid by the employer;
- a service allowance;
- consideration for work agreed to be compensated in whole or in part by a daily allowance paid by a sickness fund within the meaning of the Insurance Fund Act, which the worker receives in lieu of wages provided for by law or by collective agreements or other contracts;
- remuneration for work agreed to be compensated in whole or in part by private care allowance under the Act on Aid for Home Care and Private Care of Children or by other similar aid paid by the State or the municipality;
- a dividend based on labour input within the meaning of the Income Tax Act;
- other income equivalent to the above.
Non-work-related income, capital income or income that cannot be considered as established income is not taken into account when determining the established salary. Such income includes:
- holiday pay, holiday bonuses and holiday allowances;
- financial benefits paid by the employer within the meaning of the Unemployment Insurance Act, which are accrued on the basis of the person’s regular salary;
- a cash gift from the employer;
- tax-free benefits in kind and staff benefits;
- tax-free reimbursement of expenses;
- the contribution to an individual voluntary pension insurance scheme, net of tax;
- interest benefit on an employment loan;
- salary for waiting period;
- compensation for damages;
- scholarships and bursaries;
- income from the staff fund;
- profit-sharing bonus;
- wages paid in the form of salary insurance to the extent that, if paid by the employer, it would not be income to be taken into account for the purposes of the daily allowance;
- supplementary benefits from the occupational sickness fund;
- a fiduciary duty allowance paid for a fiduciary function;
- compensation based on intellectual property rights;
- a share option, unless the agreed subscription price of the share subscribed for under the employee option is substantially below the fair market value of the share at the time the employee option is granted and such employee option is exercised within one year of the grant of the employee option, or unless it is remuneration which is regarded as consideration for employment;
- dividend income, unless it is regarded as consideration for work;
- a share issue based on an employment relationship;
- a disguised dividend;
- compensation equivalent to the salary for the period of notice;
- a cash allowance drawn from a time bank and a cash allowance from a time bank paid as salary security;
- savings in a time bank;
- remuneration in the form of shares, deposits or similar instruments listed on a regulated market supervised by the authority or a multilateral trading facility supervised by the authority of the employer company or of a company belonging to the same group or to a similar economic association with the employer company, or partly or wholly in cash instead of shares, where the value of the benefit derived from such remuneration depends on the performance of the value of the shares concerned for a period of at least one year between the date on which the remuneration is promised and the date on which it is granted;
- reduced pay for family leave;
- other income equivalent to the above.
Fulfilling the working condition
The working condition is based on the wages paid to you. The working condition month is the calendar month in which your salary is paid. This means that, in principle, the working condition is met at the end of the calendar month in which the last of the 12 months of pay is paid to you.
Exceptionally, your working condition may be met and therefore your entitlement to daily allowance may start in the middle of a calendar month if,
- your unemployment has started in the middle of the calendar month and your working condition was fully completed by the end of the previous calendar month
- your unemployment starts in the middle of the calendar month and you have fully completed the working condition as a result of work done before you became a jobseeker (provided that the wages for the work done before you became a jobseeker have been paid during the working condition month).
If you have worked for exactly 12 months and have no other work that qualifies for the working condition, and your last salary is paid after the end of your employment, you may not be entitled to an earnings-related daily allowance as soon as your employment ends. In this situation, the last month of employment is not completed until the end of the calendar month in which the last salary is paid. When you are not entitled to earnings-related daily allowance, you can apply to Kela for labour market subsidy.
Working and membership conditions
You must be a member of an unemployment fund to collect the working condition for which you are entitled to unemployment benefit. To qualify for earnings-related daily allowance, you must have been a member for at least 12 months before becoming unemployed.
There is a difference between the accumulation of the working condition and the membership condition. The working condition is accumulated in months of employment. The membership condition, on the other hand, is accumulated in months, with each day counted. This can lead to situations where the 12-month membership condition is met later than the 12-month working condition.
Reference period
You do not have to accumulate the working condition months in a single period. It is sufficient to accumulate the necessary months over a 28-month reference period.
You can also accumulate the working condition over a longer period than 28 months. This is possible in situations where we can extend the reference period. We can extend the reference period if you are prevented from being in the labour market because of
- illness, inpatient care or rehabilitation
- military or civilian service
- full-time studies
- the birth of a child or the care of a child up to 3 years old
- grant period
- wage-subsidised work
- other comparable valid reason
Even if you are in the labour market, we can extend your reference period if you are in an employment support service or receive partial sickness benefit. We can also extend your reference period if you are a member of parliament or a minister.
We can extend the reference period by up to seven years.
Validity of the working condition
If you are absent from the labour market for more than six months without a valid reason, we cannot give you earnings-related daily allowance until you have fulfilled the working condition again after your absence.
We will not be able to take into account any working condition you have accumulated before the absence, because the new reference period for the working condition starts when you start working after the absence.
You are in the labour market when you have been
- in a job that counts towards the working condition
- in wage-subsidised work
- self-employed
- you have been in an employment support service
- you have been an unemployed jobseeker
You have a valid reason for your absence from the labour market due to
- illness
- inpatient care
- rehabilitation
- military service
- civilian service
- full-time studies
- grant period
- the birth of a child
- care of a child up to three years of age, or
- any other comparable reason
If you have been self-employed for more than 18 months or if you have fulfilled the working condition for self-employment as a member of an entrepreneur’s fund, we cannot give you earnings-related daily allowance until you have fulfilled the working condition as an employee again. In this case, the reference period for the working condition will start when you start working after your self-employment.
If you have fulfilled the working condition for self-employment and you join us, your right to self-employed daily allowance will end when you fulfil the working condition for employment as a member of our fund.
Change of the working condition criteria
Previously, the working condition was accumulated on the basis of working time per calendar week. The current working condition is based on salary and will apply from 2.9.2024.
The change in the law does not remove the working conditions you accumulated before the change in the law. We will convert the calendar weeks you previously accumulated until 1.9.2024 into working condition months, so that four calendar weeks will accumulate to one working condition month. Three of the remaining calendar weeks accumulate to one month of working condition. One or two calendar weeks accumulate to half a working condition month.
Thus, for example, five calendar weeks are converted into 1.5 working condition months, so that four calendar weeks make up one working condition month and the remaining one calendar week makes up one half a working condition month. Added together, these are 1.5 months of working condition.
Calendar weeks of the working condition | Working condition months |
1 week | 0,5 month |
2 weeks | 0,5 month |
3 weeks | 1 month |
4 weeks | 1 month |
5 weeks | 1,5 months |
8 weeks | 2 months |
9 weeks | 2,5 months |
10 weeks | 2,5 months |
15 weeks | 4 months |
20 weeks | 5 months |
30 weeks | 7,5 months |
40 weeks | 10 months |
When your working condition is met from the combination, we add up the converted calendar weeks and the new months of working condition. For example, if you have accumulated 15 calendar weeks before 2.9.2024, which, when converted, equals 4 months of working condition, you will need 8 more months of working condition to meet the 12-month working condition.
Application of the law change
If the 26 calendar week working condition is met by Sunday 1.9.2024, we will apply the provisions of the old law, i.e. we will check whether you have worked at least 18 hours in 26 calendar weeks over a 28-month period. In this situation, your working condition will therefore be accumulated according to the old law.
When you start to accumulate working condition from 2.9.2024, we will apply the new law, i.e. we will check whether you have a total of 12 months of qualifying wages in the 28-month reference period. In this case, your working condition will be accumulated according to the new law. During the transition period, your working condition may also be based on a combination of the old and the new law.
- You are in full-time employment 4.3.2024–1.9.2024
- You have joined us on your first day of work 4.3.2024
- Your unemployment starts on 2.9.2024
- You are covered by the old law and during your membership period you meet the full working condition on 1.9.2024
- You are in full-time employment 8.7.2024–30.6.2025
- You will always be paid on the 15th day of the same month of employment
- By 1.9.2024, you will have accumulated 8 calendar weeks of qualifying working condition
- We will convert these weeks into two months for the new working condition
- From 2.9.2024–30.6.2025, you will accumulate 10 months of working condition according to the new law
- You will meet the 12-month working condition on 30.6.2025
- You work full-time during the autumn and spring seasons, so that you are unemployed during the summer
- 8.1.–2.6.2024 you will have 21 calendar weeks of the old law for the working condition
- You are unemployed from 3.6.–11.8.2024
- from 12.8.–1.9.2024 you are working and you will have 3 more calendar weeks to accumulate for the working condition
- 1.9.2024 you have accumulated 24 calendar weeks towards the working condition
- The 26 calendar weeks of working condition under the old law will not have been completed by 1.9.2024, so we will change the accumulated working condition weeks to match the new working condition months
- Your accumulated 24 weeks of working condition will be converted into 6 months of working condition
- You need 6 more months of working condition to meet the 12-month working condition under the new law
- If you continue to work and are always paid for the current month of employment, you will meet the working condition on 28.2.2025 (working condition accumulates from September to February)
- If you are always paid retroactively in the following month, you will meet the working condition on 31.3.2025 (you will accumulate the working condition from October to March)
- You have a full-time job for the period 1.10.2024–30.9.2025
- You will be paid on the 15th of each month
- the 12-month working condition will be met on 30.9.2025.
- Wage-subsidy work will start on 26.8.2024 and end on 27.4.2025.
- Wage-subsidy work will accumulate working condition under the old law until 27.4.2025.
- Wage-subsidy work will start on 2.9.2024 and end on 4.5.2025.
- Wage-subsidy work does not accumulate any working condition.
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Topic
- Membership
- Earnings-related daily allowance
- Applying for earnings-related daily allowance
- Adjusted earnings-related daily allowance
- Lay-off
- TE Services
- Social benefits
- Studying
- Entrepreneurship
- International circumstances
- Mobility allowance
- Transition security
- Job alternation leave
- Appeal procedure
- Recovery