Requirements for membership

Last updated 30.11.2023

We have no membership restrictions at the YTK Unemployment Fund. This means that you can join us regardless of your profession, the sector you work in or your education. Other conditions for membership are laid down in the law and our rules.

You can join us if you are:

• a wage or salary earner,​​​​​​
• employed at the time of joining, and
• aged 18 – 68.

A wage or salary earner is an employee working in an employment or public service relationship. A wage or salary earner is a person who earns a living by working for someone else.

If you work part-time, you can join us when you have a workday.

A CEO or Managing Director as referred to in the Limited Liability Companies Act is considered a salary earner for the purposes of the Unemployment Security Act. In other words, you can also join us if you are a CEO. As a CEO, you are protected against unemployment by income security, but we cannot pay earnings-related daily allowances to laid-off CEOs.

Limitations on joining

In general, you cannot join if you are unemployed or, for example, laid-off full-time, on unpaid sick leave, on parental leave, or in military service.

However, you can join while unemployed if you return to the Finnish labour market from abroad, although restrictions apply.

You can also join while unemployed if you were a member of another employment fund and you apply to join us within one month of the dissolution, liquidation or bankruptcy of the said employment fund.

YTK Unemployment Fund is an unemployment fund for employees, so self-employed people cannot join.

Although we have no restrictions based on our members’ professions, we cannot offer the new supplementary seafarers’ insurance. This means joining us will not benefit you if you work on board a foreign merchant vessel used for international traffic, as referred to in the Seafarers’ Employment Contracts Act, even if you live in Finland.

Age limits for joining

There is no minimum age limit for joining, either in the law or in our rules. However, no unemployment insurance contribution is collected on work done before you reach the age of 18, so this work does not count towards the working condition period. In practice, under 18s cannot benefit from membership because they cannot accrue their entitlement to income security.

According to our rules, you can join before you reach the age of 68. Your membership will end no later than at the end of the calendar month in which you turn 68.