Fund members who have fulfilled the employment condition during their membership are entitled to earnings-related allowance. Legislation regarding when, how much and on what grounds the employment condition accrues was amended on September 2, 2024. At the same time, the employment condition period was extended from 6 to 12 employment condition months.
Even before their employment begins, members sometimes contact the fund to request clarification on when their employment condition will be fulfilled. The fund cannot give exact information beforehand, as the accrual of the employment condition is subject to actual paydays and the amount of salary paid during a calendar month.
Monitoring the status of the employment condition
As a member applies for earnings-related allowance, the fund reviews the status of their employment condition in connection with processing the application. We obtain members’ salary information from the incomes register. At times, we have to request payslips to supplement the information your payroll clerk has submitted to the incomes register. For instance, a phone call is not sufficient for us to determine with certainty the number of employment condition months a member has accrued. The matter can only be resolved when the application is pending and being processed.
Employment condition accrues per calendar month
With the legislative amendment in effect, the employment condition now accrues per calendar month. For one calendar month, the employment condition may accrue for one half or for one full employment condition month. In other words, a calendar month is the base unit for the accrual of the employment condition. (Before the legislative amendment of September 1, 2024, the employment condition was accrued per calendar week.)
Salary paid during a calendar month is the determining factor
The amount of salary paid during a calendar month ultimately determines whether a certain month accrues one half or one full employment condition month (or none at all). However, there are some exceptions, which are detailed below in Exceptions to the accrual of employment condition. When at least 930 euros of so-called salary for insurance purposes – i.e. salary excluding holiday bonuses, holiday compensation and other non-standard salary items – has been paid during a calendar month, that calendar month accrues one full employment condition month. It is also possible to accrue the employment condition in increments of one half of an employment condition month. This applies to calendar months during which at least 465 but less than 930 euros is paid in salary.
The employment condition may also accrue for calendar months during which the person has not worked at all. Sometimes salaries are paid during the calendar month that follows the month during which the work was performed. If an employment relationship ends in October and the salary earned for work performed in October is paid in November, the month of November accrues the employment condition, even though the actual work was completed earlier. Salary supplements alone can sometimes also accrue the employment condition.
Exceptions to the accrual of employment condition
Exceptions to the accrual of the employment condition based on salary paid during a calendar month are situations where
- salary has been paid for an earnings period longer than the standard salary period, in which case the salary is, for the purpose of calculating the employment condition, divided forward or backward over as many months as it was earned, with the payment month included.
- an earned bonus or other performance-based salary has been paid for a period exceeding one month, in which case such a bonus/salary is, for the purpose of calculating the employment condition, divided across the related earnings period.
- a salary payment made later than the standard payment month is due to a delay caused by the employer, in which case the salary is adjusted to the calendar month during which it should have been paid.
Example 1
Anna’s employment relationship lasted from October 20 to November 30, 2025. Her employer paid her salary for the entire employment period on the last day of November.
Because the salary was paid for a period longer than a standard salary period (i.e. a month), the salary is divided, for the purpose of calculating the employment condition, across the payment month and the month preceding it, meaning both November and October.
Example 2
Ville’s employer has had issues with salary payments, and Ville has applied for remuneration via wage security. Ville’s September salary, which the employer should have paid on September 30, 2025, is paid to him via wage security only in December.
As the salary was paid later than the standard payment month due to a delay caused by the employer, the salary is, for the purpose of calculating the employment condition, adjusted to the calendar month during which the employer should have paid the salary (September).