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Hiring your first employee in Finland: the paperwork, in order

Published 1 October 2026

Hiring your first employee in Finland takes a handful of steps, and their order matters. Accident insurance must be in place before the work starts. The key terms of employment must be in writing within seven days of the first working day. Occupational health care is compulsory from the first employee. From the first payday, each pay run is reported to the Incomes Register within five days. What all of this costs each month is in our article on the costs of a first employee.

Before the first working day

• Check your collective agreement. If a generally binding collective agreement covers your sector, you must follow its minimum pay, working hours and other terms even if you are not a member of an employers' association.
• Take out accident insurance. Statutory accident and occupational disease insurance must be in place before the work begins; it cannot be taken out afterwards.
• Agree on occupational health care. It is compulsory from the first employee. Make a written agreement with a provider and an action plan with them. Kela reimburses 60 % of the approved costs of preventive care and 50 % of medical care, within a ceiling per employee.
• Assess the risks of the work. The Occupational Safety and Health Act requires you to identify the hazards of the work and plan how to manage them, however small the workplace.

In the first week: the terms in writing

An employment contract can be oral, but the employee must then get a written statement of the key terms. The first group of terms is due within seven days of starting work:

• the employer's and employee's domicile or place of business
• the start date of the work, and any trial period
• where the work is done
• the main duties
• the basis of pay and other remuneration, and the pay period
• the working hours.

The rest of the statement is due within one month. The duty applies once the employee works at least three hours a week over four consecutive weeks. A written employment contract that covers these terms does the same job, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration publishes a model statement.

Before the first payday

• Ask for the tax card. Without one you must withhold 60 %.
• Arrange TyEL pension cover. Earnings-related pension contributions are due on your employee's wages from the start. If you employ someone on a continuing basis, or pay more than 10 272 euros in wages over six months in 2026, you need a TyEL insurance contract; below that, as a temporary employer, you pay the contributions to a pension company without one.
• Set up payroll. Each payslip shows the gross pay, the withholdings and the net pay.

From the first payday

• Incomes Register: every pay run within five days of payday, and the employer's separate report by the 5th of the following month.
• Payments: the withheld tax and the employer's health insurance contribution by the 12th of the following month. Your pension company and the Employment Fund invoice you from the same data.
• Employer register: with one employee you are usually a casual employer. Registration becomes compulsory when you regularly pay wages to two or more employees, or to six or more at the same time.
• Records: keep a record of the working hours and of annual holidays, and keep each payslip.

If the employee is you

A working owner of an Oy with more than 30 % of it alone, or more than 50 % with family, is insured under YEL, not TyEL. The other steps above still apply to the people you hire. See our article on YEL in 2026.

Running the payroll and these reports is part of what we do for small employers. If you want an accounting company in Finland to take the first payslip off your desk, payroll is 15 euros per run on our price list.

Sources

• Occupational Safety and Health Administration: terms and conditions of employment
• Tax Administration: Employer Register
• Kela: occupational health care reimbursements (in Finnish)

Please note: this is general information about Finnish rules, not advice for your own situation, and the rules change. Ask us before you act on it.

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