Payroll and Benefits Guide Finland

Annual Leave (vacation)

Annual leave is calculated from April 1 to March 31 and vacation is typically taken between May 2 -September 30. Under the Annual Holidays Act, employees generally accrue:
• 2 days of paid holiday per month if the employment relationship has lasted under 1 year, and
• 2.5 days of paid holiday per month once the employment relationship has lasted at least 1 year.

The annual holiday is earned and taken on working days. Saturday is also considered a working day even if the employee did not work on Saturdays ( i.e. a full week of vacation is equal to the use of 6 days of the annual leave entitlement). At least two weeks of the annual holiday must be taken as an uninterrupted period, however, the employer and the employee may agree on taking the holiday outside the holiday seasons and they may also convert part of the holiday into shorter working hours.

The rules concerning the calculation of the holiday pay depend on the pay system and holiday accrual rules applying to the employee. The holiday pay must be paid before the start of the holiday. However, for a holiday not exceeding six days, the holiday pay may be paid on the employee’s normal payday.

PTO carryover

In Finland, unused statutory annual leave (beyond the main holiday period) can be carried over/saved by agreement between employer and employee. Employers cannot simply cancel or forfeit accrued statutory leave at year-end — any saved/“carried-over” days must be agreed and then scheduled later. Finnish law and collective agreements explicitly allow leave to be postponed or carried over rather than lost.

• For People 2.0, 5 days can be carried over every year with no deadline to be used.

Public Holidays

If a statutory public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, Finnish law does not generally provide an automatic day off in lieu. Whether a holiday on a weekend is “lost” in practice depends on the applicable collective agreement and work schedule.

Sick Days

Family leave (pregnancy + parental leave)
Finland’s family leave system was reformed in 2022.
• A pregnant employee can take pregnancy leave for 40 working days, typically starting 30 days before the estimated due date.
• After this, parents can use parental leave for a total of 320 working days. If the child has two parents, the days are normally split 160 days each, and up to 63 days can be transferred between parents.
• Leave can usually be taken flexibly in several periods, and benefits are paid by Kela according to its parental allowance rules.

Many collective agreements improve on these minimums (e.g. partial salary during part of the leave), so the exact pay level must always be checked against the relevant CBA and employment contract.

Other Leave

Depending on the Collective Agreement/Employment Contract terms, an employee may be allowed additional leave types, following the approval of the employer, for the following leave types:
Childcare leave: employees are entitled to take unpaid childcare leave for the full-time care of a child under the age of 3 or the care of an adoptive child for two years after adoption. The employer must take the leave before the child enters the school.