To receive earnings-related daily allowance, you must meet the employment condition

You can apply for earnings-related daily allowance from the unemployment fund in the event of unemployment or lay-off if you have met the employment condition while a member of the unemployment fund and paid the membership fees for the working period. 

The Employment Requirement is 12 Months Starting from September 2, 2024

The employment condition is 12 calendar months and is income-based. This means that the employment condition accumulates based on the salary paid, not the hours worked. Each calendar month during which a taxable salary of at least 930 euros has been paid accumulates one month of the employment condition. If a salary of at least 465 euros but less than 930 euros has been paid during a calendar month, it accumulates half a month of the employment condition. If there are two half months of the employment condition, they accumulate into one full month of the employment condition. The half months do not need to be consecutive. Therefore, the 12-month employment condition can be fulfilled, for example, with 11 full months and two half months of the employment condition.

Employment does not need to be continuous or fulfilled through a single continuous employment relationship; you can accumulate employment condition months through temporary jobs, for example. However, the employment condition must be met within the 28 months preceding unemployment. The review period can be extended by up to seven years for acceptable reasons. Acceptable reasons for extending the review period include full-time studies, periods of sickness allowance, military service, maternity and parental leave, and caring for a child under 3 years old.

Example: You are in full-time employment from October 1, 2024, to May 31, 2025. The salary is always paid during the month it is earned. You accumulate a total of 8 employment condition months (October-May). After this, you have occasional work in August 2025 and receive a salary of 700 euros. The salary is paid in August, so you accumulate half an employment condition month. The next occasional work is in November 2025, when you receive a salary of 800 euros. The salary is paid in November, so you accumulate another half employment condition month. Two half employment condition months make one full employment condition month, so you accumulate a total of 9 employment condition months from October 1, 2024, to November 30, 2025. You start full-time work on January 1, 2026, and the employment lasts until March 31, 2026. The salary is always paid during the month it is earned. You accumulate a total of 12 employment condition months.

If you have transfered from one employees’ unemployment fund to the Unemployment Fund Pro within a month, your periods of membership and employment accumulated during membership of the previous fund have been transferred to the Unemployment Fund Pro provided that the membership fees have been paid up until the last day of membership. However, periods of membership and employment have not been transferred to the Unemployment Fund Pro if you have been expelled from the previous unemployment fund due to a reason such as failure to pay membership fees.

Salary Accumulating Employment Condition Months

The salary that accumulates employment condition months must be insurance-covered (social security contributions have been deducted) and paid for work performed. Holiday pay and holiday compensation are not included in the salary sum when assessing whether the salary threshold for an employment condition month is met. The salary must also comply with the collective agreement. If there is no collective agreement in the sector, the salary for full-time work must be at least 1 399 euros per month in 2024 and 1 430 euros in 2025 to accumulate employment condition months. Employment condition months also accumulate for months during which normal (not reduced) sick pay or holiday pay is paid. Additionally, the salary for the notice period, as stipulated by law or collective agreement, accumulates employment condition months even if there is no work obligation, provided that pension contributions and other employer contributions have been deducted from the salary.

Salary paid during partial sickness allowance periods cannot be considered for the employment condition. Similarly, reduced sick pay based on an employment or civil service agreement cannot be considered for the employment condition. However, these periods extend the 28-month review period for the employment condition.

If the Salary is Paid in the Month Following the Working Month

If the salary is paid in the month following the working month, the employment condition accumulates for the calendar months in which the salary is paid. This means that the working month and the employment condition month can be different months.

Example: You are in full-time employment for up to two weeks in November, but you receive the salary in December. No employment condition accumulates for November because no salary was paid. However, one full employment condition month accumulates for December if the salary paid is at least 930 euros. If the salary paid is at least 465 euros but less than 930 euros, half an employment condition month accumulates for December.

Example: You start a fixed-term full-time job on October 15, 2024. The salary for the previous month is always paid on the 1st of the following month. The October salary is paid on November 1, 2024, and it is 1,000 euros. Employment condition months start accumulating from November 2024. The employment lasts until May 14, 2025. The last salary (for May) is paid on June 1, 2025, so an employment condition month also accumulates for June. You accumulate a total of eight employment condition months, even though the employment period is exactly seven months (October 15, 2024 - May 14, 2025).

If Salary is Paid for More Than One Month at a Time

If the employer pays salary for more than one month at a time during a calendar month and this deviates from the usual salary payment, the salary cannot be considered solely for the payment month. In this case, the salary is allocated to the payment month and to as many following or preceding months as the period for which the salary was earned. For example, if you are paid a salary on December 31, 2024, which was earned from November 1 to December 31, 2024, the salary is allocated to both November and December for the employment condition review.

What Happens to Employment Condition Weeks Accumulated Until September 1, 2024?

We will convert the employment condition weeks accumulated until September 1, 2024, into employment condition months as follows: 3–4 employment condition weeks correspond to one full employment condition month, and 1–2 employment condition weeks correspond to half an employment condition month. The conversion is done by dividing the total number of employment condition weeks within the review period by four. If the division is not exact, the remaining weeks are rounded up to half an employment condition month if the remainder is 1–2 weeks, or to a full employment condition month if the remainder is 3 weeks. For example, 21 employment condition weeks correspond to 5.5 employment condition months, and 23 employment condition weeks correspond to 6 employment condition months.

Example of Conversion: If you have accumulated 25 employment condition weeks by September 1, 2024, these are converted into employment condition months by dividing 25 weeks by four. The result is 6.25, which means 6 full employment condition months (6 x 4 = 24). The remaining one employment condition week (0.25 weeks) is rounded up to half an employment condition month. Thus, you accumulate 6.5 employment condition months by September 1, 2024. The conversion is done after you have been employed from September 2, 2024, and have received a salary of at least 465 euros.

Example: You have accumulated 23 employment condition weeks from October 1, 2023, to September 1, 2024. You start a fixed-term full-time job on October 1, 2024, and the employment lasts until March 31, 2025. You receive a monthly salary, with the first salary paid on October 15, 2024. The last salary is paid on March 15, 2025. During the employment period, you accumulate 6 employment condition months. The 23 employment condition weeks accumulated by September 1, 2024, are converted into employment condition months, which equals 5.75 months. This is rounded up to 6 months. In total, you have accumulated 12 employment condition months by March 31, 2025.

Right to earnings-related daily allowance may be lost

You will lose the right to earnings-related unemployment allowance if you have been absent from the labour market for more than six months without an acceptable reason as defined in unemployment security. Losing the employment condition means that you cannot receive the earnings-related allowance until you have fully met the 12-month employment condition again. Acceptable reasons for being absent from the labour market include periods of sickness allowance or rehabilitation allowance, maternity and parental leave, caring for a child under 3 years old, full-time studies or a grant period, job alternation leave, and employment-promoting services.

If you are declared unfit for work by a doctor’s statement but receive a rejection for sickness allowance, rehabilitation allowance, or disability pension, register as an unemployed jobseeker immediately after receiving the rejection. This is necessary because a period of sick leave is not an acceptable reason to be absent from the labour market unless sickness allowance, rehabilitation allowance, or disability pension has been paid for the sick leave period. Only periods for which a benefit has been paid due to incapacity for work are considered acceptable reasons for being absent from the labour market.

Note that if you receive a financial benefit from your employer (e.g., severance pay), this is not an acceptable reason to be absent from the labour market, even though you cannot receive the allowance for the period covered by the financial benefit. To maintain the right to earnings-related allowance after the period covered by the financial benefit, you must be registered as a jobseeker during the period covered by the financial benefit. Therefore, it is advisable to register as a jobseeker after your employment ends.

Also note that partial early old-age retirement is not an acceptable reason to be absent from the labour market, so you must be employed in a way that meets the employment condition. This way, you maintain the right to earnings-related allowance in case of a layoff or unemployment. Being on supplementary pension alone is also not an acceptable reason to be absent from the labour market. In this case, you must also be registered as a jobseeker. This way, you retain the right to the allowance if the supplementary pension is paid only for a certain period and you are not yet entitled to an old-age pension after the supplementary pension payments end.

Working in a family business

The employment condition for those working in a family business has been 52 weeks. The length of the employment condition remains 52 weeks if even one work week was accumulated before September 2, 2024. If the employment condition is entirely accumulated from work done after September 2, 2024, the employment condition is 12 months, the same as for employees. The employment condition must be accumulated as a member of the unemployment fund and within 28 months.

Pay-subsidized work and Employment Obligation

You can accumulate the employment condition during pay-subsidized work if the pay-subsidy is granted for the employment of a person with reduced work ability or a long-term unemployed person aged 60 or over. In this case, the employment condition accumulates at a rate of 75% after 10 months of pay-subsidized work. Therefore, the pay-subsidized work must last for 26 months for the employment condition to be fully met through pay-subsidized work. This change came into effect on September 2, 2024.

If the pay-subsidized work started by September 1, 2024, the employment condition still accumulates at a rate of 75% from the start of the employment, and the length of the employment condition is 6 months. Thus, the pay-subsidized work must last approximately eight months for the employment condition to be fully met.

If the pay-subsidized work is arranged based on the employment obligation, the employment condition is 6 months and it accumulates at a rate of 100% for the entire duration of the employment. The law concerning the employment obligation has been repealed, but it still applies if the jobseeker is at least 57 years old and the maximum period for the daily allowance has been reached, meaning the employment obligation arose by September 1, 2024, at the latest. There is no employment obligation if the maximum period was reached on or after September 2, 2024. For more detailed information about pay-subsidized work and the employment obligation, please contact the employment officials.

If you are employed based on the employment obligation, the level of earnings-related unemployment allowance is not recalculated after the job ends if the salary on which the allowance is based does not increase compared to the previous base salary. The staggering of the unemployment allowance is also not applied. The fulfillment of the employment condition is reviewed as follows: Calculate how many weeks of at least 18 hours of work you have had until September 1, 2024. These weeks are added together and divided by four. For example, if you have 22 work weeks, you accumulate 5.5 months of the employment condition (4 x 5 = 20, and 2 weeks are converted into half a month of the employment condition). The employment condition is reviewed based on salary starting from September 2, 2024. Calculate how many full or half months of the employment condition have accumulated from September 2, 2024. If the employment ends on September 30, 2024, and you receive your September salary in September, you accumulate a full month of the employment condition if the salary is at least 930 euros. If the salary is at least 465 euros but less than 930 euros, you accumulate one half month of the employment condition.

Employment promoting service

If you are at least 60 years old and participate in an employment promoting service that the employment officials are obligated to provide, you will accumulate months towards the employment condition during the service period. In this case, the length of the employment condition is 6 months. The employment officials are obligated to provide the opportunity for an employment promoting service if the obligation to provide the service arose by September 1, 2024, at the latest. For more detailed information, please contact the employment officials.