The employment condition for kassa pay
Joining an unemployment fund is step one; the employment condition (työssäoloehto) decides when it actually pays.
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To receive the earnings-related allowance from a Finnish unemployment fund (työttömyyskassa), you must meet the employment condition (työssäoloehto): 12 calendar months in which you were paid at least €930 each. A month with pay between €465 and €930 counts as half, and anything lower counts as nothing. The rule tightened on 2 September 2024; before that, 26 calendar weeks of work were enough, so a six-month contract no longer qualifies on its own. The fund looks back over the two years and four months before you became unemployed, and that window can stretch to nine years and four months in specific situations. The same months also set the size of your allowance: gross pay from at least 12 months, excluding holiday bonus and holiday compensation, is divided by the number of months times 21.5. Until you qualify, Kela’s general support of €37.21 a day is the fallback. Once you have worked another 12 months at €930 or more, your allowance period starts over.
Do you meet the employment condition?
Condition accrued
11.0 / 12 months
| Full month | ≥ €930 |
| Half month | €465–€930 |
| Still missing | 1.0 months |
How a month is counted
The fund counts calendar months in which salary was paid. A month counts in full when insured, regular pay of at least €930 was paid in it. Between €465 and €930 it counts as half. Below €465 it does not count, however many hours you worked.
| Pay in the month | Counts as | Months needed for 12 |
|---|---|---|
| €400 | nothing | never |
| €600 | half month | 24 |
| €900 | half month | 24 |
| €930 | full month | 12 |
| €1,600 | full month | 12 |
| €2,800 | full month | 12 |
The payment date decides which month the salary falls in, which matters for people paid every two weeks or with irregular hours. A month that sits just under €930 because of a short shift pattern costs you half a month of progress.
Hourly workers: check each month
If you are paid by the hour, the threshold is worth checking month by month. At €14 an hour, 70 hours bring €980, a full month; 60 hours bring €840, only a half. Ten hours a month decide whether a year of work gives you twelve months or six. When rosters vary, one extra shift in a month that would fall short is worth more for your unemployment cover than any amount of overtime in a month already above the line.
Fund membership is a separate requirement
Meeting the condition is not enough on its own. Only members of an unemployment fund receive the earnings-related allowance; a non-member with a full twelve months still gets Kela’s general support, about €800 a month. On €2,800 a month a fund member would start at about €1,652. That gap is the case for joining a kassa in your first month in Finland, before you need it.
Why expats often fall short
Many people arrive on a fixed-term contract of six or nine months. Under the pre-2024 rule of 26 weeks, six months was enough. Under the current 12-month rule it covers half the condition. If the contract is not renewed, the fund has nothing to pay and the first support comes from Kela. The look-back window is two years and four months, so a second contract within that time adds to the first.
A second trap is low part-time pay. At €600 a month every month is a half, so you need 24 months of work, which only just fits in the window. Topping one month over €930, for example with extra shifts, saves you a whole extra month.
A worked example
Anna worked nine months full time, then four months part time at €700 a month. The full months give nine, the part-time months give 2, total 11. She is 1 month short. If she becomes unemployed now, Kela’s general support pays until new payslips complete the condition. The mini calculator above runs the same sum for your own months.
The condition also sets your allowance
Your allowance is built on the pay from the months that met the condition, at least 12 of them. Pay is taken gross, without holiday bonus or holiday compensation, and divided by the number of months times 21.5: twelve months make 258 days.
TYJ illustrates it with six months at €2,000 and six at €3,000. Total pay is €30,000, giving a daily wage of €116.28 before the deduction. After the 2026 deduction of 3.83% and the base and earnings parts, you arrive at a full daily allowance of €70.79, roughly €1,522 per month. A pay rise in the last months lifts this only partly, because it is averaged over the whole period. How it then steps down is covered under allowance duration.
Requalifying resets everything
Working another 12 months at €930 or more restarts your maximum period, resets the step-down and recalculates the allowance from the new salary. A new 7-day waiting period applies. Shorter jobs between periods of unemployment do not reset anything. Run your numbers in the unemployment allowance calculator.
Sources: TYJ, how the allowance is calculated and Unemployment Security Act 1290/2002, chapter 5.