The Finnish Government’s proposal of unemployment insurance contribution percentages for the year 2021 was given to the Parliament of Finland to review on 20 October 2021 (linked release available in Finnish and in Swedish). The Employment Fund submitted its proposal of next year’s contributions to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in August.
According to the proposal, the amount of unemployment insurance contributions would be raised by 0.2 percentage points in total. Employers’ average contribution would increase by 0.1 percentage points and employees’ contribution by 0.1 percentage points.
This would take the average unemployment insurance contribution for employers to 1.51 per cent and the employee contribution to 1.50 per cent of payroll in 2022. According to the proposal, the lower employer contribution would be 0.50 per cent of payroll (the employer’s total payroll does not exceed EUR 2.2 million per annum) and the higher contribution would be 2.05 per cent (for the portion of payroll exceeding EUR 2.2 million).
The proposed amount of unemployment insurance contributions is based on the Employment Fund’s forecast, which was also used to draw up the Fund’s budget for 2022. The forecast takes into account a number of factors, including the sum of benefits that must be financed and the Fund’s other expenditure in the coming year. The Government’s proposal still needs to be approved by the Parliament of Finland after which the President will ratify the bill. Unemployment insurance contribution percentages are ratified annually.
