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Home Income security Adjusted earnings-related daily allowance Restrictions on adjusted earnings-related daily allowance

Restrictions on adjusted earnings-related daily allowance

Before we can pay you adjusted daily allowance, we will check the general conditions and any restrictions. The conditions and limits of the adjusted earnings-related daily allowance are the same as those of the earnings-related daily allowance paid to the wholly unemployed person. In addition, the adjusted earnings-related daily allowance has a few limitations of its own.  

Restrictions on adjusted earnings-related daily allowance

  • If your working hours exceed 80% of the working hours of a full-time employee, we cannot pay adjusted earnings-related daily allowance. This is because it is not a part-time job defined in unemployment security.
  • We cannot pay you adjusted earnings-related daily allowance if your part-time work is based on a reduction in working hours on your own initiative. Therefore, if you are working full-time and agree on your own initiative with the employer on shorter working hours, we cannot pay the adjusted daily allowance.
  • If you are paid annual holiday pay based on full-time work during part-time work, we cannot pay you adjusted earnings-related daily allowance at the same time.
  • The amount of the adjusted daily allowance has an upper limit. This maximum amount depends on what your income level was before unemployment. If you earn a lot, no adjusted earnings-related daily allowance remains to be paid. The purpose of this rule is to ensure that full-time work is always more economically viable than a combination of unemployment and part-time work.

Working time limit

When we arrange for you to receive adjusted daily allowance, we will check whether the limit of hours worked is exceeded during the application period. We will compare the maximum number of hours worked by a full-time worker with the number of hours for which you have been paid.

We cannot pay daily allowance if you have been paid for more than 80% of the maximum working time for a full-time worker on a payday that falls within the application period.

Maximum working time

The maximum working time for a full-time worker depends on the collective agreement applicable to your job. If there is no collective agreement, we use the regular working hours defined in the Working Hours Act, which is 8 hours per day.

In most cases, the maximum working time for a full-time worker is 7.5 to 8 hours per day. According to the law, this maximum daily working time is converted into a maximum monthly working time by applying a coefficient of 21.5. The multiplier is the same regardless of the actual number of working days in a month.

Depending on the sector, the maximum working time per month is around 161 to 172 hours. When we calculate 80% of the maximum, we multiply the maximum working time per month by 0.8. Thus, the working time limit for the adjusted daily allowance is, depending on the sector, about 128 to 137 hours per month.

If the application period is four weeks (Mon-Sun) instead of a month, we use a factor of 20 to calculate the maximum working time.

Accounting for working hours

The pay dates that fall within the application period determine which hours are taken into account in the working time calculation.

If you are paid earnings during the adjustment period for a longer earning period than one month, and if this differs from the normal pay period, we will divide the earnings and the working time on which the pay is based into the pay period and the number of months following the pay period equal to the number of months for which the earnings have been paid.

The monthly application period has a payday. On the payday 75 hours is paid.

The maximum working time for a full-time employee is 37.5 hours per week, i.e. 7.5 hours per day. The maximum monthly working time is therefore 161.25 hours (7.5 hours x 21.5).

The 80% working time limit is 129 hours (161.25 hours x 0.8).

During the application period, 75 hours have been paid. The hours paid do not exceed 80% of the maximum working time (129 hours).

There is no obstacle to the payment of the adjusted daily allowance due to the limit on working time.

The monthly application period has a payday. 129 hours are paid on the payday.

The maximum working time for a full-time employee is 37.5 hours per week, i.e. 7.5 hours per day. The maximum monthly working time is therefore 161.25 hours (7.5 hours x 21.5).

The 80% working time limit is 129 hours (161.25 hours x 0.8).

129 hours have been paid during the application period. The hours paid are exactly 80% of the maximum working time.

There is no obstacle to the payment of the adjusted daily allowance due to the limit on working time.

The monthly application period has a payday. On the payday 130 hours is paid.

The maximum working time for a full-time employee is 37.5 hours per week, i.e. 7.5 hours per day. The maximum monthly working time is therefore 161.25 hours (7.5 hours x 21.5).

The 80% working time limit is 129 hours (161.25 hours x 0.8).

130 hours have been paid during the application period. The hours paid exceed the working time limit, which in this case is 129 hours.

You are not entitled to the adjusted daily allowance and we cannot pay it.

You work two part-time jobs, both with paydays in the same application period. On payday, 70 hours and 60 hours are paid, i.e. a total of 130 hours.

A collective agreement is used in employment relationships, where the maximum working time for a full-time employee is 37.5 hours per week, or 7.5 hours per day. Thus, the maximum working time for a month is 161.25 hours (7.5 hours x 21.5).

The 80% working time limit is 129 hours (161.25 hours x 0.8).

A total of 130 hours of work have been paid for during the application period. The hours paid exceed the working hours limit, which in this case is 129 hours.

There is no right to adjusted daily allowance and we cannot pay it.

You work two part-time jobs, both with paydays in the same application period. On payday, 70 hours and 60 hours are paid, i.e. a total of 130 hours.

There is a collective agreement for 70 hours of work, where the maximum working time for a full-time employee is 37.5 hours per week, or 7.5 hours per day. Thus, the maximum working time for a month is 161.25 hours (7.5 hours x 21.5).

There is a collective agreement for 60 hours of work, where the maximum working time for a full-time employee is 40 hours per week, or 8 hours per day. Thus, the maximum working time for a month is 172 hours (8 hours x 21.5).

70 hours work is 43.41% of the 161.25 hours maximum working hours.

60 hours of work is 34.88% of the maximum 172 hours of work.

The total number of hours worked on the basis of salary paid during the application period is 78.29% of the maximum working hours, so the hours paid do not exceed the 80% working hours limit.

There is no obstacle to the payment of the adjusted daily allowance due to the working hours limit.

Holiday affects the adjusted daily allowance

if you work part-time, your holiday may prevent you from receiving daily allowance in full or reduce the amount of daily allowance you receive. The effect depends on whether the holiday pay is based on full-time or part-time work.

  1. Annual holiday pay: If you receive holiday pay based on full-time work during unemployment, we cannot pay you earnings-related daily allowance for the same period.

    If the right to annual leave is based on part-time work, the holiday pay does not prevent us from paying you earnings-related daily allowance. We will take the salary of the annual holiday period into account in mediation when the annual holiday salary is paid to you. In other words, the annual holiday pay based on part-time work reduces the earnings-related daily allowance we pay you when the holiday pay is paid. Thus, the effect does not depend on when you take a holiday.
  2. Holiday bonus: Holiday bonus based on full-time work do not affect the adjusted earnings-related daily allowance.

    On the other hand, the holiday bonus based on part-time work pay are taken into account as the income from the period of adjustment of the payment period, regardless of the period of time during which you have earned the holiday or when you have taken the holiday.
  3. Holiday compensation: Holiday compensation based on full-time work lasting more than two weeks prevents us from paying earnings-related daily allowance for the same period if the employment relationship has ended on or after 1.1.2024.

    The holiday compensation based on part-time work or full-time work lasting less than two weeks is taken into account in mediation as income at the time of payment. Such holiday compensations reduce the amount of earnings-related daily allowance paid to you, regardless of the period for which they have been earned.