Finland’s statutory sick pay floor is short — nine working days — but almost nobody actually operates on the floor. Collective agreements extend employer-paid sick leave to four, eight, or even twelve weeks depending on the sector and length of service, and the statutory rule mainly matters for employers with no applicable agreement.
What applies to everyone is the second layer: Kela’s sickness allowance, and the 30-60-90 day timetable of occupational health checkpoints that decides whether that allowance keeps flowing.
Key takeaways
- Under chapter 2, section 11 of the Employment Contracts Act, an employee with one month or more of service is entitled to full pay for up to 9 working days of sick leave.
- Employees with less than one month of service get 50% of pay for the same period.
- Collective agreements almost always extend this — commonly 4 to 8 weeks of employer-paid sick leave, scaled to service length.
- Kela sickness allowance starts after a waiting period of the day of falling ill plus the 9 following weekdays, and runs for a maximum of 300 working days.
- The 30-60-90 rule sets mandatory checkpoints with occupational health; missing the 90-day statement stops the allowance.
The statutory employer sick pay period
The Employment Contracts Act sets the minimum. An employee who is prevented from working by illness or accident, through no fault of their own, is entitled to sick pay for the period of incapacity — up to the end of the ninth working day following the day they fell ill.
The rate depends on service length at the point the illness starts:
| Length of service at start of sick leave | Sick pay rate |
|---|---|
| One month or more | 100% of normal pay |
| Less than one month | 50% of normal pay |
The entitlement is lost if the employee caused the incapacity intentionally or through gross negligence. That exclusion is applied narrowly in practice — ordinary carelessness does not remove the right to sick pay.
What collective agreements actually give
Finland is heavily covered by generally applicable collective agreements (yleissitovat työehtosopimukset), and virtually all of them improve on the statutory nine days. Typical structures grant employer-paid sick leave of:
- 4 weeks for employees with under a year of service
- 5 to 8 weeks as service length increases
- Up to 12 weeks in some sectors for long-serving staff
Because the agreement’s terms usually override the statutory minimum entirely, the first question for any Finnish sick leave case is which agreement applies — not what the Act says. Employers outside any agreement fall back to nine working days.
Kela sickness allowance (sairauspäiväraha)
Kela, the Social Insurance Institution, pays sickness allowance once the waiting period has passed. The waiting period is the day the employee falls ill plus the 9 following weekdays — which is why the statutory employer period and the Kela start date line up.
Key features:
- Allowance is income-related, calculated from earnings, with a lower flat rate for low or no income.
- It runs for a maximum of 300 working days (roughly one year) for the same illness.
- Where the employer pays full salary for the period, Kela pays the allowance to the employer rather than the employee.
- The application must be made within two months of the start of the entitlement.
After 300 days the employee’s route is either a return to work, partial sickness allowance during a phased return, rehabilitation, or a disability pension application.
Partial sickness allowance
Finland supports phased returns through partial sickness allowance (osasairauspäiväraha). An employee who can work 40–60% of normal hours can agree reduced hours with the employer and receive partial allowance for the rest.
The arrangement is voluntary on both sides, requires an occupational health physician’s assessment that part-time work will not harm recovery, and can be used either after the waiting period or later in a long absence. It is one of the more effective return-to-work tools in the Nordic systems and is under-used by foreign employers who do not know it exists.
The 30-60-90 rule
This is the part of Finnish sick leave that employers most often miss, because the obligations fall on three different parties:
| Day | Obligation |
|---|---|
| 30 | Employer must notify occupational health services of the absence |
| 60 | Employee should apply to Kela for sickness allowance if not already done |
| 90 | Employee must submit an occupational health physician’s statement and the employer’s assessment of remaining work capacity to Kela |
The 90-day statement is not optional. Without it, Kela stops paying the allowance. It requires the employer to have assessed whether the employee’s work can be adjusted so they can return — which means the employer needs to have engaged with occupational health well before day 90.
Medical certificates
There is no statutory rule requiring a doctor’s certificate from a fixed day. Practice is set by the collective agreement and the workplace’s own rules, and most Finnish workplaces allow self-certification for the first 1–3 days, sometimes longer, often with an occupational health nurse able to certify short absences.
Where a certificate is required, it must come from a doctor or, where the agreement permits, a public health or occupational health nurse. Employers pay for occupational health services, which are themselves mandatory: every Finnish employer must arrange preventive occupational health care for its employees.
Employer obligations
Finnish employers have six core duties:
- Pay statutory sick pay — full pay for 9 working days after one month’s service, 50% before that — or the better rate the collective agreement sets.
- Apply the correct collective agreement, which in most sectors supersedes the statutory minimum.
- Arrange occupational health care, which is compulsory for all employers.
- Notify occupational health by day 30 of a continuous absence.
- Assess remaining work capacity and supply the employer’s part of the day-90 submission to Kela.
- Consider partial sickness allowance and phased return where the employee can manage 40–60% of hours.
Common pitfalls
1. Applying the nine-day statutory floor when an agreement applies
Most Finnish employees are covered by a generally applicable collective agreement giving several weeks of employer-paid sick leave. Paying nine days where the agreement says four weeks is a straightforward underpayment.
2. Getting the service-length test wrong
The 50% rate applies to employees with under a month’s service at the point the illness starts, not at the point of payment. Crossing the one-month mark mid-absence does not retroactively upgrade the rate for that absence.
3. Missing the day-30 occupational health notification
It is the employer’s obligation, not the employee’s, and it is the trigger for everything that follows in the 30-60-90 sequence.
4. Leaving the day-90 statement to the employee
The employee submits it, but it depends on the employer’s work capacity assessment. Employers who have done nothing by day 85 cannot produce it in time, and the employee’s allowance stops.
5. Overlooking partial sickness allowance
Employers who treat sick leave as all-or-nothing miss a well-supported route back to work that Kela actively funds.
For broader Finnish context, see our guide to annual leave entitlement in Finland, the comparison of sick leave across Europe, and the overview of the main types of leave employers manage.
Frequently asked questions
How many paid sick days do Finnish employees get?
The statutory minimum is full pay to the end of the ninth working day after falling ill, for employees with a month or more of service. Collective agreements typically extend this to four to eight weeks.
What if the employee has worked less than a month?
They receive 50% of normal pay for the same nine-working-day period, unless the applicable collective agreement is more generous.
When does Kela start paying?
After a waiting period of the day of falling ill plus the nine following weekdays. Where the employer pays full salary, Kela reimburses the employer.
How long can sickness allowance be paid?
Up to 300 working days for the same illness — approximately one year. After that the route is return to work, rehabilitation, or a disability pension.
What is the 30-60-90 rule?
Occupational health must be notified by day 30; the Kela application should be in by day 60; and by day 90 an occupational health physician’s statement plus the employer’s work capacity assessment must reach Kela or the allowance stops.
Do employees need a doctor’s note from day one?
Not by statute. Most workplaces allow self-certification for one to three days, and many collective agreements let an occupational health nurse certify short absences.
Putting it into practice
Five checks cover most Finnish sick leave risk:
- Identify the applicable collective agreement and configure sick pay to its terms, not the statutory floor.
- Set the 50%/100% rate test on service length at the start of each absence.
- Automate the day-30 occupational health notification.
- Diarise the day-90 statement at day 60 so the capacity assessment is ready in time.
- Offer partial sickness allowance as a standard phased-return option, not an exception.
A leave management system that applies collective agreement sick pay bands by service length, tracks continuous absence in working days, and fires the 30-60-90 checkpoints keeps the Kela handover clean and the allowance uninterrupted.
Sources
- Kela — sickness allowance (primary source)
- Employment Contracts Act (Työsopimuslaki 55/2001), chapter 2 section 11
- Occupational Health Care Act (Työterveyshuoltolaki 1383/2001)
Last updated: 26 July 2026. This article is general guidance, not legal advice. Sick pay terms are largely set by collective agreement — confirm the agreement that applies to your sector, and check current allowance rates with Kela.