How annual leave builds up in Finland
The Annual Holidays Act (vuosilomalaki) decides how many days you earn and what you are paid while away.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Calculation method
Under the Finnish Annual Holidays Act (vuosilomalaki), you earn 2.5 working days (arkipäivää) of leave for each full month of work, which adds up to 30 days, or 5 six-day weeks, over a full holiday credit year. If your employment had lasted less than a year without a break by 31 March, you earn 2 days a month instead, rounded up to whole days. The credit year (lomanmääräytymisvuosi) runs from 1 April to 31 March, which surprises many people arriving from countries that use the calendar year: someone who started in September has 14 days by the following summer. A month counts as full with at least 14 days at work; if your contract has too few days for that ever to happen, 35 hours in the month are enough. On a monthly salary you simply keep your normal pay during leave. Workers who never reach a full month get 2 days off a month plus compensation of 9% of the year’s pay, or 11.5% after a year of employment. The holiday bonus (lomaraha) is not in the act at all; it comes from collective agreements.
How many holiday days you have earned
Holiday days
30 working days
| In weeks (6 working days) | 5.0 |
| Summer leave up to | 24 |
| Winter leave | 6 |
Days earned, month by month
Section 5 of the act sets the rate: 2.5 working days for each full holiday credit month, 2 in the first year. Your first-year status is checked on 31 March, and part days are rounded up. The table shows both scales.
| Full months | Employed under a year on 31 March | Employed a year or more |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 2 | 4 | 5 |
| 3 | 6 | 8 |
| 4 | 8 | 10 |
| 5 | 10 | 13 |
| 6 | 12 | 15 |
| 7 | 14 | 18 |
| 8 | 16 | 20 |
| 9 | 18 | 23 |
| 10 | 20 | 25 |
| 11 | 22 | 28 |
| 12 | 24 | 30 |
Rounding shows up on odd months: five full months give 12.5 days, which becomes 13. Because leave is counted in working days including Saturdays, 30 days equal 5 weeks off.
What makes a month “full”
Only full months earn leave. The main test is at least 14 days at work in the calendar month. Full-time staff pass almost every month, but the month you start can fail if you begin late in it.
For part-timers the contract decides. If it gives you so few days that 14 is out of reach, the hours test applies instead: 35 hours in the month make it full. Only one of the two tests applies to you at a time, so a four-day-a-week worker is judged on days and a two-day-a-week worker on hours.
If you never reach a full month
Very short hours can mean no full months at all. Section 8 then gives you the right to take 2 working days off per calendar month if you want them, and the money comes as holiday compensation: 9% of the wages paid for the credit year, or 11.5% once the job has lasted at least a year. On €15,000 of yearly wages that is €1,350 in the first year and €1,725 afterwards.
Leave days on the calendar
Leave is counted in working days, and Saturday is one of them. A Monday-to-Sunday week off therefore uses six days of your balance, not five, and 30 days cover 5 weeks. Colleagues from countries that count holiday in five-day weeks often find their balance shrinking faster than expected; a single Friday off costs one day.
Pay during leave
With a monthly salary, your pay simply continues. The payslip for a holiday month looks like any other, and the take-home on €3,000 a month does not change while you are away. When leave starts or ends mid-period, pay is split pro rata.
The holiday bonus is separate. Most collective agreements pay it, commonly 50% of holiday pay, usually around the summer holiday. Our calculator prices a leave day with the divisor of 25 that the act uses for holiday compensation: on €3,000 and 30 days, holiday pay comes to €3,600 and a 50% bonus to €1,800. The holiday bonus calculator runs your own figures.
Three typical cases
- You started on 1 September 2025: seven full months by 31 March 2026, under a year employed, 14 days.
- You started on 1 March 2025: a year employed on 31 March 2026 and 12 full months since April, 30 days.
- Two months of unpaid leave with no working days during the year: 10 full months, 25 days.
The mini calculator above handles your own months. If the job ends before you use your days, they are paid out as holiday compensation.
Sources: Annual Holidays Act 162/2005 and Occupational Safety and Health Administration, holiday pay and compensation.