Working condition

Last updated 20.12.2023

The working condition is the main condition for the daily allowance. You are entitled to an earnings-related allowance once you have fulfilled the working condition as a member of our fund.

To qualify, you must have worked for at least 26 calendar weeks during a 28-month reference period.

If you have worked for your family member’s company, you will meet the condition if you have worked for at least 52 calendar weeks in a qualifying job during the 28-month reference period.

Reference period

We can include in your employment record any work you have done during the reference period. The reference period for the working condition is the 28 months closest to the previous month.

When the reference period is longer than the length of the working condition, it means in practice that the working condition does not have to be accrued in a single period of work. This means that you have the possibility to accumulate entitlement to earnings-related daily allowance even for shorter periods of work.

You can also accumulate the working condition for 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, institutional care or rehabilitation
• conscription or non-military service
• full-time studies
• the birth of a child or the care of a child up to 3 years old
• scholarship period
• another acceptable reason that compare these

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.

Work included in the working condition

We can count the calendar weeks during which you have been in insurable employment that meets the conditions for working hours and pay towards your working condition.

The work is insured when you are a member of ours and statutory side costs and taxes have been paid from your salary. In other words, undeclared work does not accumulate the working condition.

The requirements for working hours are met when your working hours in one or more jobs total at least 18 hours per calendar week. The conditions concerning working hours are also met when your regular working hours in accordance with the employment contract are, on average, at least 18 hours per calendar week during the equalisation period.

For the purposes of the working condition, we cannot count work hours that you have saved in a time bank as working time.

The pay conditions are met if your pay is in line with the collective agreement. If there is no collective agreement in your sector, your full-time salary must be at least 1 399 € per month.

We cannot include in your working condition the work you have done while receiving part-time sickness allowance. In addition, we cannot take into account the length of time you have been paid a reduced sick pay on the basis of an employment or collective agreement.

We may deviate from the 18-hour calendar-weekly working hours requirement for

• teachers
• domestic workers
• athletes
• artists and
• for other persons working non-standard working hours

Accumulation of working condition in part-time work

When you work part-time as an employee, you can also accumulate the working condition. Every calendar week during which you work at least 18 hours can count towards your working condition. Once you have accumulated 26 such calendar weeks, your working condition will be fulfilled. You will then receive a new maximum payment period and your earnings-related allowance may be recalculated. When the earnings-related allowance is calculated on the basis of part-time work, it may be lower than the full-time allowance.

Accumulation of working condition in wage-subsidised work and employment-promoting service  

In wage-subsidised work, we count 75 per cent of the calendar weeks during which your work has been paid-subsidised. When we count the number of calendar weeks to be considered, we always make a possible rounding down to the nearest full calendar week.

If your wage-subsidised work has been arranged on the basis of an obligation laid down by law, we can include it in your working condition in full, unlike the previous one.

Qualifying periods of employment and insurance

Exceptionally, we can take into account work done over the age of 65 in the working condition, even if no unemployment insurance contribution has been paid for the work.

We can also take into account the work done as the CEO in the working condition. This is not possible if you are also an entrepreneur as a CEO.

If you resign from an unemployment fund and join another unemployment fund within one month of the difference, the new unemployment fund may take into account the working condition you collected in the previous unemployment fund. You are therefore free to change unemployment funds without losing the benefit you have accrued.

An entrepreneur’s working condition

If you work as an entrepreneur, you can collect an entrepreneur’s working condition. However, this can only be done as a member of an entrepreneurial fund. YTK Unemployment Fund is an unemployment fund for wage earners, so you cannot collect an entrepreneur’s working condition with us.

The working condition of an entrepreneur is different from that of an employee. The entrepreneur’s working condition is 15 months and the review period is 48 months. The working condition is not collected on the basis of hours worked, such as the employee’s working condition, but on the basis of earned income.

You can search for more detailed information on the accumulation of the entrepreneur’s working condition on the Entrepreneur Fund’s website.

In our databank you can find more information on how working as an entrepreneur affects an employee’s earnings-related daily allowance.

Periods of insurance and employment completed in another State

We can also take into account work done abroad in your working condition. This requires that the work is in accordance with the provisions of a social security agreement, social security regulation or basic regulation. In addition, you must have worked as an employee in Finland immediately before unemployment for at least four weeks or as an entrepreneur for at least four months.

Our data bank provides more information about working abroad.

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Validity of the working condition

If you are absent from the labour market for more than six months without an acceptable reason, we cannot grant you earnings-related daily allowance until you have fulfilled the working condition again after your absence.

The review period for the working condition begins when you have gone to work or started a business after your absence. Therefore, we cannot take into account the amount of work you accumulate prior to your absence in your new working condition.

You’re in the job market when you’ve been

• in work that is readable in the working condition
• in wage-subsidised work
• employed in business
• you have been in an employment-promoting service
• you have been an unemployed job seeker at the employment authority.

You have an acceptable reason for absence from the labour market

• illness
• institutional care
• rehabilitation
• conscription
• civil Service
• full-time studies
• scholarship period
• birth of a child
• the care of a child up to three years of age, or
• for any other comparable reason

If you have worked as an entrepreneur for more than 18 months, or if you have fulfilled the entrepreneur’s working condition as a member of an entrepreneurial fund, we cannot grant you earnings-related daily allowance until you have again fulfilled the employee’s working condition after entrepreneurship. In such a situation, the review period of the working condition begins when you have gone to work after the enterprise.

If you have met the entrepreneur’s working condition and you transfer to us, your right to the entrepreneur’s earnings-related daily allowance ends when you meet the employee’s working condition as a member of ours.

Post-protection of the employee and an entrepreneur

If you change from an employee to an entrepreneur or vice versa, you will not lose the right to earnings-related daily allowance that you have already collected. The prerequisite is that after leaving the fund, you join the unemployment fund within one month.

If you move to an entrepreneurial fund from us and become unemployed before you have fulfilled the entrepreneur’s working condition, you are entitled to the earnings-related daily allowance that we would pay you if you were still our member.

If you transfer from the entrepreneurial fund to us and become unemployed before you have fulfilled the employee’s working condition, you are entitled to the earnings-related daily allowance that would be paid to you if you were still a member of the entrepreneurial fund.

In the situations described above, the earnings-related daily allowance is granted and paid by the unemployment fund of which you are a member.