From entrepreneur to wage-earner

You cannot accrue the wage-earner’s work requirement in the Entrepreneur Fund. If you start working as a wage earner, you should join an unemployment fund for wage-earners. If you met the entrepreneur’s work requirement during your membership in the Entrepreneur Fund, you retain the right to apply for entrepreneur’s daily allowance, until you meet a new wage-earner’s work requirement. In addition its is required that there is not a gap longer than one month between fund memberships.

Should you become unemployed before completing the wage-earner’s work requirement, the wage-earner’s fund would be able to pay you unemployment allowance based on entrepreneur’s post-protection i.e., based on your insurance level in the Entrepreneur Fund.

Join a wage-earner’s fund

There are 15 unemployment funds for wage-earners in Finland. Some funds are specific to a certain branch, where joining the fund may require you to be employed in a specific profession or sector. Some funds require a specific education. In addition, there are also funds that anyone can join regardless of branch or education.

Information on wage-earner’s funds including how to join, membership fees and allowances along with contact information and links to the funds’ websites are available on the Federation of Unemployment Fund’s in Finland’s website.

Temporarily employed?

If you accept short-term employment as a wage-earner, you do not have to switch funds if you intend to return to self-employment after the short-term employment. If you do not make pension insurance contributions during your temporary employment as a wage-earner, you can apply for our reduced membership fee, which is € 4 per month. Apply for the reduced membership fee in writing. We recommend using our eService where you can send attachment and messages securely to the fund. Log in to the eService from the top right corner of this page.