Due to an amendment to the law, the minimum age for the obligation to pay unemployment insurance contributions will be raised to 18 on 1 August 2022. This means that the payment liability starts at the beginning of the month following the employee’s 18th birthday. Currently, the minimum age for the liability to pay unemployment insurance contributions is 17.
This change applies to salaries paid from 1 August 2022 onwards. Please remember the changed minimum age when withholding employees’ unemployment insurance contributions from their salaries and reporting salary information to the Incomes Register. As of 1 August 2022, no unemployment insurance contributions need to be withheld from the salaries of employees who are under 18. If you have employees on your payroll who are not liable to pay unemployment insurance contributions because of their age, select “No obligation to provide insurance (unemployment insurance)” in “Type of exception to insurance” when filling in the earnings payment report form in the Incomes Register.
Please note that the obligation to pay unemployment insurance contributions may stop temporarily for employees who are 17 years old at the time when the amendment enters into force on 1 August 2022. After that, the payment obligation starts once they turn 18.
Example: The employee turns 17 in May 2022. In June and July 2022, unemployment insurance contributions need to be paid out of the employee’s salary, because the employee’s payment obligation started after turning 17. As for salary paid in August 2022, no unemployment insurance contributions need to be paid, because employees under the age of 18 are no longer liable to pay them after the amendment has entered into force on 1 August 2022. The next time any unemployment insurance contributions have to be paid out of the employee’s salary will be in June 2023 after the employee has turned 18 in May 2023.
There will be no changes to the maximum age for the obligation to pay unemployment insurance contributions. The payment obligation does not apply to persons over 65. The payment obligation ends at the beginning of the month following the employee’s 65th birthday.
The reason behind this amendment is the fact that Finland extended the compulsory schooling age to 18 on 1 August 2021. For this reason, the Unemployment Security Act was amended so that the minimum age for receiving unemployment benefits is 18 in most cases. The idea is that the minimum age for the obligation to pay unemployment insurance contributions should be as consistent as possible with the minimum age for receiving unemployment benefits. The changed minimum age for the obligation to pay unemployment insurance contributions will not enter into force until a year later on 1 August 2022.
You can find more information on unemployment insurance contributions on our website.
