Entrepreneurship

Membership in the fund during full-time entrepreneurship

As a full-time entrepreneur, you should insure yourself with the Entrepreneur Fund. You only accrue unemployment security for entrepreneurs (employment condition) as a member of the Entrepreneur Fund. The employment condition is fulfilled if you have worked as an entrepreneur for 15 months within the 48 months preceding unemployment, provided that your entrepreneurial activity has been substantial. Read more on the Entrepreneur Fund’s website.

You cannot join the Unemployment Fund of Social and Healthcare Workers as a full-time entrepreneur. If you begin full-time entrepreneurship while being a member of the fund, you can retain your membership for a maximum of 18 months. If your entrepreneurial activity continues beyond 18 months, your membership in the Unemployment Fund of Social and Healthcare Workers ends, and the employment requirement previously accrued as a wage earner is no longer valid.

If entrepreneurial activity ends within 18 months

If your entrepreneurial activity ends within 18 months of starting, you may be entitled to unemployment allowance based on the employment requirement accrued as a wage earner if one of the following conditions is met:

• you have met the wage earner’s employment requirement, and the maximum period of unemployment allowance started before the entrepreneurial activity (in this case, allowance can be paid for the remaining days in the maximum period counter)
• you fulfill the wage earner’s employment requirement (12 months) during the 28-month review period preceding unemployment.

In these cases, unemployment allowance can be paid either by the Unemployment Fund of Social and Healthcare Workers or the Entrepreneur Fund, depending on your membership at the time the entrepreneurial activity ends.

Example: Unemployment allowance was paid before starting entrepreneurial activity
The Sotekassa paid unemployment allowance for 150 days by 31 October 2024. Full-time entrepreneurship occurred from 1 November 2024 to 1 March 2026 (16 months in total).

1. If you joined the Entrepreneur Fund immediately (within one month) after starting entrepreneurial activity and the employment condition (15 months) fulfills, the allowance is based on the entrepreneur’s employment condition.
2. If you joined the Entrepreneur Fund later or retained membership in the Unemployment Fund of Social and Healthcare Workers, the entrepreneur’s employment condition is not fulfilled. Allowance is paid according to the wage earner’s employment requirement for the remaining days in the maximum period counter (e.g., with a maximum period of 400 days, 250 days are paid: 400–150 = 250 days). The allowance amount remains the same as before starting entrepreneurial activity.

Example: Entrepreneurial activity begins immediately after wage work ends

Salaried employment was conducted from 1 November 2024 to 30 November 2025 during membership in the Sotekassa. Salaries were paid during the working months, and the employment condition was accrued for 13 months. Full-time entrepreneurship occurred from 1 December 2025 to 30 April 2027 (17 months in total).

1. If you joined the Entrepreneur Fund immediately (or within two months) after starting entrepreneurial activity and the employment condition (15 months) is fulfilled, the allowance is based on the entrepreneur’s employment condition.
2. If you joined the Entrepreneur Fund later or retained membership in the Unemployment Fund of Social and Healthcare Workers, the entrepreneur’s employment condition is not fulfilled. You have no right to unemployment allowance. The salary earner’s employment requirement is not fulfilled during the 28-month review period preceding unemployment (1 January 2025–30 April 2027). Only 11 months of the employment requirement (1 January–30 November 2025) were accrued during this period.
3. If entrepreneurial activity had ended and unemployment started by 31 March, the salary earner’s employment requirement would have been fulfilled during the review period. The unemployment allowance would then have been based on salary accrued from 1 December 2024 to 30 November 2025.

In unemployment security a person who is insured under the pension law YEL or MYEL, is considered to be an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur (part-owner of a company) is also considered to be a person insured under other pension laws (eg TYEL) who:

• works without a leadership position (as an employee) in a company, where he/she owns by himself/herself or together with his/hers family at least 50% of the company 
• works in a leadership position in a company, where he/she owns at least 15 % of the company OR
• works in a leadership position in a company, where he/she together with his/hers family owns at least 30% of the company.

Indirect holding through another company can be added to a persons share of ownership if he/she and his/hers family together own at least 50 % of the intermediate holding company.

Work not performed under an employment or service relationship, such as working through an invoicing cooperative, is also considered entrepreneurship.

Definitions

In the context of unemployment security, family members include a spouse or cohabiting partner, children, and grandchildren as well as parents and grandparents living in the same household.