Meeting the employment condition is one of the requirements for receiving earnings-related unemployment allowance. The employment condition is accrued based on wages paid, and you must accumulate at least 12 employment condition months while you are a member of an unemployment fund.
Sometimes members contact the unemployment fund before starting a new job to ask when they will meet the employment condition. However, the fund cannot give an exact estimate in advance because both the dates on which wages are paid and the amount of wages paid during a calendar month affect how the employment condition is accrued. The month in which the work is performed and the month in which the wages are paid are not always the same. As a rule, the employment condition is accrued for the month in which the wages are paid. For this reason, whether the employment condition has been met can only be confirmed when your application for earnings-related unemployment allowance is processed.
Checking the employment condition
The unemployment fund checks whether the employment condition has been met when it processes your application for earnings-related unemployment allowance. Information on wages paid to members is obtained from the Finnish Income Register. In some cases, however, the information reported to the Income Register is not sufficient to determine whether the employment condition has been met. In such cases, we will ask you to provide your payslips as additional documentation.
The employment condition is accrued by calendar month
The employment condition is assessed separately for each calendar month. During one calendar month, you can accrue either one full employment condition month or half an employment condition month. A calendar month is therefore the basic unit used when determining the employment condition.
The amount of wages paid during a calendar month is decisive
The amount of wages paid during a calendar month determines whether you accrue a full employment condition month, half an employment condition month, or no employment condition month at all. Wages are taken into account at their gross amount, that is, before taxes are deducted.
When determining the employment condition, holiday bonus, holiday compensation and other non-established pay items are not taken into account. Instead, the calculation is based on the so-called insurance wage.
If at least €930 is paid during a calendar month, you accrue one full employment condition month. If the wages paid amount to at least €465 but less than €930, you accrue half an employment condition month. If the total wages paid are less than €465, no employment condition month is accrued.
Sometimes wages are paid during the month following the month in which the work was performed. In such cases, the employment condition is accrued for the month in which the wages are paid, even if no work was performed during that month. For example, if an employment relationship ends in October and the wages earned for work performed in October are paid in November, the employment condition is accrued for November even though the employment ended in October. In some cases, wage supplements alone may also contribute to the employment condition.
Exceptions to accruing the employment condition
In some situations, the period during which the work was performed may affect when the employment condition is accrued. Therefore, the wages paid during a calendar month do not always alone determine the accrual of the employment condition.
Exceptions include situations where
- wages have been paid for an earning period longer than one month instead of the normal pay period. In such cases, the wages are allocated, including the payment month, equally to the calendar months before or after it during which the wages were earned.
- a bonus or other performance-based remuneration earned over a period longer than one month has been paid. In determining the employment condition, such remuneration is allocated to the period during which it was earned.
- wages are paid later than the normal payment month because of a delay caused by the employer. In this case, the wages are allocated to the calendar month in which they should normally have been paid.
Example 1
Anna’s employment lasts from 20 October to 30 November 2026. Her employer pays the wages for the entire employment period on the last day of November.
Because the wages are paid for an earning period longer than one month instead of the normal pay period, the wages are allocated between October and November when determining the employment condition.
Example 2
Ville’s employer has experienced difficulties paying wages, and Ville has applied for payment under the Wage Guarantee Scheme. The wages for September, which the employer should have paid on 30 September 2026, are not paid until December through the Wage Guarantee Scheme.
Because the payment of wages was delayed due to reasons attributable to the employer, the wages are allocated to September when determining the employment condition, that is, to the month in which they should normally have been paid.