Wage subsidy and employment subsidy for people aged 55 or older
Are you thinking about hiring a new employee? The City of Vantaa has various ways to support an employer that hires a Vantaa unemployed job seeker.
Wage subsidy refers to discretionary financial assistance meant to promote the employment of an unemployed job seeker, which the City of Vantaa Employment Services can grant an employer to compensate for the salary costs.
The purpose of wage subsidy is to help an unemployed job seeker find employment in the open labor market by improving their professional competence.
Wage subsidy can also be granted for the salary costs of a person with diminished work ability or a person sixty (60) years or older. In addition, wage subsidy may also be granted for apprenticeship training.
Wage subsidy is granted to the employer
An employer always applies for and is granted wage subsidy. Wage subsidy can also be granted to a business, organization, or foundation, as well as a religious community, municipality, joint municipal authority, wellbeing services county, and another employer. Granting wage subsidy always requires that the employer has a business ID.
Apply for wage subsidy
For whom can an employer receive wage subsidy?
Wage subsidy may be granted for improving one’s professional competence when the unemployed job seeker to ge hired meets one of the criteria below:
- is aged 15 - 24 years, or
- is aged 50 years or older, or
- has not taken the matriculation examination, a degree specified in the Act on Vocational Education, or a corresponding foreign upper secondary degree, or
- is entitled to an integration plan, or
- has not been employed for the previous six months.
How much wage subsidy can be paid?
The amount of wage subsidy granted for improving professional competence is 50% of the salary costs; however, at max. €1 260/month. The support period is at max. five or ten months.
The amount of wage subsidy granted for hiring a person with diminished work ability amounts to 70% of the salary costs; however, at max. €1 770/month. The duration of the first support period is at max. ten months. The employer can apply for continuation to the wage subsidy.
The amount of wage subsidy granted for hiring a person aged 60 or older amounts to 50% of the salary costs; however, at max. €1 260/month. After the first support period, the employer can apply for continuation.
Wage subsidy for apprenticeship training is granted for the entire duration of the training period. The subsidy most commonly amounts to 50% of the salary costs, which means that the wage subsidy is at max. €1 260/month.
Terms of wage subsidy related to employment
Wage subsidy will not be granted if employment has begun before a decision on wage subsidy has been made.
The employment relationship may be temporary or valid until further notice. Wage subsidy may be granted for both full-time work and part-time work. Wage subsidy will not be granted for zero-hours contracts, commission-based pay, or performance-based pay.
The employer must be committed to paying the wage applied to the employment relationship in question according to the collective agreement, or if there is no applicable collective agreement, the employer must be committed to paying a common and reasonable wage.
Terms of wage subsidy related to employer
Wage subsidy cannot be granted if:
- During the twelve (12) months preceding the application for wage subsidy, the employer has fired employees for production or economic reasons and has not after this hired employees in such a way that the number of employees in an employment relationship with the employer at the time of granting wage subsidy is at least as big as the number of employees at the termination date.
- The employer has, to a significant extent, neglected its obligation to pay wages or its obligations to pay taxes or other legislative fees.
- The employer has earlier been granted wage subsidy or employment subsidy for salary costs related to hiring a person aged 55 or older and less than three years have passed since the termination of the subsidy.
Employment subsidy for people aged 55 or older
As an alternative to wage subsidy, you can apply for employment subsidy for hiring a person aged 55 or older if the person in question has been unemployed for at least 24 months during the 28 months immediately preceding granting of the subsidy.
Employment subsidy can be granted to an employer when:
- An unemployed job seeker has reached the age of 55 or older before the beginning of the support period.
- The job seeker has been unemployed for at least 24 months during the 28 months immediately preceding granting of the subsidy.
- The minimum working hours amount to 25 hours per week or, if the regular maximum working hours of the field in question fall below 37.5 hours per week, at least 65% of the regular maximum working hours of the field in question.
- The subsidy amounts to 70% of the salary costs; however, at max. €1 770 per month.
- The support period is ten months or at max. the duration of the employment relationship.
The same terms and conditions as in the case of employment subsidy are applied to employment subsidy for people aged 55 or older.