Earnings-related allowance
The earnings-related allowance is a financial benefit that you can receive as a member of an unemployment fund if you are laid off or become unemployed.
On this page, you will find general information about the earnings-related daily allowance, its conditions and amount.
On this page, you will find
What is earnings-related allowance?
The earnings-related allowance is a financial benefit that you can receive as a member of an unemployment fund if you are laid off or become unemployed.
You may be also entitled to earnings-related allowance for the duration of the following:
- part-time work
- short-term or part-time studies
- employment-promoting services
- part-time entrepreneurship
- adverse weather conditions
- waiting period for sickness allowance
- prolonged incapacity for work
- a reason comparable to a lay-off
More information about restrictions on the earnings-related daily allowance.
As the name suggests, earnings-related allowance is a benefit linked to income. The amount of earnings-related allowance is calculated based on the salary earned prior to unemployment or lay-off. You can get an estimate of your daily allowance using the daily allowance calculator
If you are not a member of an unemployment fund, you can apply for unemployment benefits paid by Kela.
It is therefore worthwhile to join A-kassa – we are an unemployment fund open to all wage-earners, regardless of their industry or sector. Only members are entitled to earnings-related allowance based on their salary level. If you are not a member yet, you can join here.
You can join when you are in paid employment. You cannot join a fund while unemployed, laid off or, for example, on a nursing leave.
When am I entitled to earnings-related allowance?
You can receive earnings-related allowance from us if you are a member of our fund, you have applied for the earnings-related allowance within the required time, you fulfil all prerequisites for the earnings-related allowance and there are no other disqualifying factors for payment.
You must fulfil the following prerequisites:
- You are fully or partially unemployed (e.g. in part-time work or laid off).
- You have been a member of the fund for a sufficient period (membership condition 12 months is met).
- You have worked and received sufficient salary during your membership period (employment condition 12 months is met).
- You are 18 to 64 years old (for a lay-off, 18 to 67 years old).
- You have registered as a jobseeker on Job Market Finland.
- unemployment
- part-time work
- full-time or partial lay-off
- part-time or short-term studies
- full-time studies, on a case-by-case assessment
- employment-promoting services
- part-time or short-term entrepreneurship
- adverse weather conditions
- prolonged incapacity for work
- a reason comparable to a lay-off (work is prevented due to a reason beyond the control of the employee or the employer)
You will lose your right to employee’s earnings-related allowance and must fulfil an entirely new employment condition if:
- You are absent from the job market for more than 6 months without an acceptable reason.
- You have been a full-time entrepreneur for 18 months.
- You have moved from one unemployment fund to another with a period of more than one month between the funds.
- you have been dismissed from the previous unemployment fund of which you were a member
You are not entitled to earnings-related allowance if:
- You are receiving a social benefit that disqualifies you for the earnings-related allowance, such as full pension or parental allowance.
- You are a full-time entrepreneur.
- You are on study leave.
- You are a full-time student and your studies do not qualify for unemployment benefit.
- You are on a leave of absence.
- You are partially unemployed because your weekly working hours have been reduced at your request.
- You are on unpaid leave from full-time employment by your own choice.
Assessment and decision on the amount of daily allowance
The amount of your full earnings-related allowance is affected by the salaries you received before your unemployment or lay-off. However, the amount of the earnings-related allowance you receive is not a fixed percentage of your salary but a more complex calculation. It is based on rules specified in the legislation.
You can estimate your earnings-related allowance with our daily allowance calculator. When you apply for the earnings-related allowance and send your application to the fund, we calculate the precise amount of your earnings-related allowance, for which you will receive a decision.
Earnings-related allowance consists of a basic component and an earnings-related component
If you are fully unemployed or laid off, you receive the full earnings-related allowance, provided that you do not have income or benefits that reduce its amount.
The full earnings-related allowance consists of two components:
- The basic component, which is the same for all recipients of the earnings-related allowance. It is equal to the amount of the basic unemployment allowance paid by Kela, currently 37.21 euros per day (in 2026).
- The earnings component, the amount of which is determined by your income.
We calculate your earnings component based on the established salaries from the period that fulfilled your employment condition, i.e. at least 12 months. A deduction called insurance contribution deduction is made from the salary (3.83% in 2026). The daily salary is then calculated based on the remaining salary (after the deduction).An income limit has been established for the calculation of the earnings component. The income limit affects the proportion of the salary that is taken into account when calculating the earnings component.
The earnings component is 45% of the difference between your daily salary and the basic component. If your monthly salary exceeds 3,534.95 euros (in 2026), the earnings component for the exceeding salary share is 20%.
Minimum and maximum amount of the earnings-related allowance
Your full earnings-related allowance is always at least equal to the basic unemployment allowance paid by Kela (37.21 euros in 2026). At its highest, your full earnings-related allowance can amount to 90% of the daily salary that formed the basis of your earnings-related allowance.
When calculating the earnings component of the earnings-related allowance, we account for salary income from at least 12 calendar months that precede the unemployment or lay-off. The salaries are required to fulfil the employment condition. Income is considered as the gross amount, i.e. before tax deductions.
The calculation applies established salary income, such as hourly or monthly salary. For example, holiday bonus or holiday compensation are not taken into account, as they are not deemed established income.
Therefore, not all salary components are taken into account in the calculation. Examples of how different salary components are considered in the calculation are listed below. Neither list is exhaustive.
Established income components taken into account in the calculation of the earnings-related allowance include, among others:
- monthly, daily and hourly salary
- contract pay
- annual leave pay
- sick leave pay
- notice period salary (not compensation)
- salary supplements: overtime compensation, evening work allowance, shift work allowance, personal and job demands component, working condition compensation, contract work base component, mid-week holiday compensation, etc.
- standby and on-call pay
- compensation for reduced working hours (the so-called ‘Pekkanen’)
- performance-based salary, such as various commissions, performance bonuses and other bonuses
- taxable fringe benefit, e.g. phone and meal benefit
- wages paid as wage security
Capital income, non-work-related income or income that cannot be considered established income are not taken into account in the calculation of the earnings-related allowance. Such income components include:
- holiday bonus, end-of-holiday pay and holiday compensation
- salary earned during a partial sickness allowance period
- reduced salary for a period of illness
- reduced salary for periods of parental leave
- non-taxable fringe benefit
- non-taxable reimbursements (e.g., kilometre allowance, reimbursement for tools, chainsaw reimbursement)
- financial benefit paid by the employer in connection with the termination of employment, that is, a so-called golden handshake (regardless of what the employer calls it)
- compensation in lieu of notice compensation
- compensation for damages
- savings in the working time account, or cash compensation withdrawn from the working time account
- salary for the waiting time
- capital income, e.g. option and dividend income
- scholarships and grants
Recalculating the earnings-related allowance
If you fulfil the 12-month employment condition again after your earnings-related allowance period has begun, we will recalculate the amount of your full earnings-related daily allowance.
If you meet the employment condition during independent studies or labour market training, your earnings-related allowance will not be recalculated while your studies are ongoing. Only when you have completed your studies will your daily allowance be recalculated and your allowance days reset.
If you have moved on to the additional days of earnings-related allowance , the amount of your daily allowance will no longer be recalculated. This means that even if you are employed and meet the employment condition again, the amount of your daily allowance remains the same and the paid benefit days will not reset. If your daily allowance has previously been reduced due to staggering, this reduced amount will continue to be applied for the entire duration of your additional days.
Your new earnings-related allowance is protected by the 80% rule if you have previously been paid earnings-related allowance and the maximum payment period (300 to 500 days) of the earnings-related allowance period has not yet been reached. In other words, the new employment condition must be met while the current allowance period is still ongoing for this protection to apply.
The protection ensures that your full earnings-related allowance is at least 80% of your previously paid full earnings-related allowance. This means the amount of your new earnings-related allowance can decrease by a maximum of 20% compared to your previous earnings-related allowance.
The 80% protection for the earnings-related allowance does not apply if:
- no previous earnings-related allowance has been paid to you (for example, due to a waiting period), or
you meet the new employment condition only after the maximum payment period of your previous earnings-related allowance (300–500 days) has been reached and no days in the allowance period remain.
The earnings-related allowance is staggered into different levels, meaning that the amount of the benefit decreases if your unemployment continues for a prolonged period.
A maximum of five benefit days can be paid per week. Once the amount of your daily allowance has been calculated, you will receive the full earnings-related allowance for the first 40 benefit days, provided that you are fully unemployed or laid off.
Following this, the daily allowance decreases in two staggered stages:
- After the first stage, your allowance is 80% of the full daily allowance. This level of benefit is paid for benefit days 41 through 170.
- After the second stage, your allowance is 75% of the full daily allowance. This benefit level is paid from the 171st benefit day until the end of your allowance period.
Full earnings-related allowance for first 40 days | 1st staggering, 41–170 days | 2nd staggering, 171 days -> |
|---|---|---|
100 % | 80 % | 75 % |
The staggering is calculated from the full daily allowance. It is not cumulative. However, your earnings-related allowance will always equal the basic unemployment allowance, at the very least. The basic unemployment allowance or labour market subsidy paid by Kela is not subject to staggering; the staggering only applies to earnings-related allowance.
If your daily allowance is staggered, you can only return to the full, non-staggered daily allowance by fulfilling the 12-month employment condition again. In this case, a new daily allowance will be calculated and your earnings-related allowance will return to the full 100% level. Your maximum payment period will also start over, i.e. your day count will be reset.
For those who move on to additional days, the staggered daily allowance remains in effect permanently and can no longer be restored to the full daily allowance. The staggered daily allowance is paid until retirement.
You can estimate your daily allowance amount and the impact of staggering with our daily allowance calculator.
If you become partially employed and receive adjusted earnings-related allowance, your paid benefit days accumulate towards the maximum payment period more slowly than those of a fully unemployed person. Consequently, the staggering will also begin to affect your adjusted daily allowance later than it would for someone who is fully unemployed.
Staggering reduces your full daily allowance. Once the amount of your reduced daily allowance (80% or 75%) has been calculated, only then is the reducing effect of employment or business income, i.e. wages and other benefits, calculated. This is how the staggered, or reduced, adjusted daily allowance is determined.
If you receive adjusted daily allowance, days accumulate towards the maximum payment period based on the number of full benefit days the payments represent.
Your full earnings-related allowance is 60 euros per day. You work part-time, and due to your salary, you receive an adjusted daily allowance of 30 euros per day over a period of 20 days, amounting to 600 euros.
The 600 euros in paid benefits is equivalent to 10 days of full daily allowance (60 euros per day). Therefore, only 10 days are counted towards your maximum payment period, even though the adjusted benefit was paid over a period of 20 days.
Because you are receiving only half of the full daily allowance, it would take a total of 80 days of part-time work to reach the 40-day threshold for staggering.
Your full earnings-related allowance is 60 euros per day. Your unemployment continues and, after the first stage of staggering, your daily allowance is reduced to 48 euros per day. Working part-time, you earn a salary of 860 euros per month. Half of this salary (430 euros) reduces your daily allowance. Calculated per day, the salary reduces your allowance by 20 euros (€430 / 21.5). Thus, you receive an adjusted daily allowance of 28 euros per day.
Who is affected by staggering?
The legislative amendment on the staggering of earnings-related allowance came into effect on September 2, 2024. If you have worked after this date, earning a salary of at least 465 euros per month, and have subsequently become unemployed, you are subject to staggering. This requires, however, that your employment meets the 12-month employment condition.
Staggering affects all recipients of earnings-related allowance who fall within its scope. It does not matter whether the daily allowance is paid as a full or adjusted daily allowance, allowance reduced by social benefits, or on the basis of additional days.
Staggering does not apply to you if you meet any of the following conditions:
- The maximum period for your earnings-related allowance (300, 400 or 500 days) commenced before September 2, 2024.
- You fulfilled the 26-week employment condition under the previous legislation no later than September 1, 2024.
- Your employment condition includes pay-subsidised work that began no later than September 1, 2024.
- Your employment condition includes employment-promoting services or work arranged on the basis of an employment obligation, and that obligation arose no later than September 1, 2024.
You are on additional days and the maximum period for your earnings-related allowance began before September 2, 2024.
Maximum payment period
Earnings-related allowance is paid for a period of up to 300, 400 or 500 days. This timeframe is referred to as the ‘maximum period’ or ‘maximum payment period.’ Your maximum payment period is determined by the length of your work history and your age.
In special situations (e.g. working abroad, business activities, studies, etc.), please consult the pages related to those situations. In unclear cases, please contact the fund if necessary.
Applying Guide
You can find instructions for applying in the Applying Guide.
Your application
You can track the progress of your application in the eService. In the eService, you can also see the payment date of your processed application and, among other things, order a text message notification about an upcoming benefit payment.