Paid per visit in Finnish home care: what counts as working time and pay
If you work in home care (kotihoito) in Finland and your employer pays only for the minutes you spend with each client, the first thing to know is that Finnish law has no single rule that bans pay per visit, but it does not let an employer pay you whatever it likes either. Your pay must meet the minimum in the collective agreement that applies to your employer, and the Working Time Act decides which hours count as work. Whether time between visits is working time depends on what you are required to do in that time, and the answer is set by the law, the collective agreement and the facts of your day, not by the label on your pay slip.
This page explains the rules published by the Finnish occupational safety and health authority (Työsuojelu, tyosuojelu.fi) and what you can do if you think your pay does not match your hours. It is general information, not legal advice for your case.
What counts as working time in Finland
The occupational safety and health authority describes the basic rule in plain words: "The time spent on work is considered working hours." It adds that time you are required to be present at a place of work at the employer's disposal also counts, even if you are not doing anything at that moment, as long as you must be ready to start again immediately.
Two details matter for home care:
- The workplace is not only an office. The authority says the "workplace" may be "any location where the employer assigns the employee to perform work". A client's home where your employer sends you is such a location.
- Travel time is treated differently. The same page lists, among things that principally do not count, "travel time, if it does not constitute work performance in itself". The page also says that whether a particular time counts "should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis".
In practice this means you cannot settle the question from the general rule alone. If you move between clients during your shift because the employer has planned the route, carry work equipment, are on call for the office, or document visits on the way, those facts are part of the case-by-case assessment. Collective agreements may also contain more specific rules: the authority notes that "There may be more specific provisions concerning working hours in collective agreements."
How pay is set when there is no minimum wage law
Finland has no general statutory minimum wage. The authority says so directly: "There is no minimum wage law in Finland." Instead, minimum pay comes from collective agreements.
The rules work in layers:
- Collective agreement through membership. If your employer belongs to an employers' organisation that signed a collective agreement, its wage provisions bind the employer.
- Universally binding agreement. Some collective agreements are confirmed as universally binding in their sector. Then even employers that are not members of any organisation must follow the wage provisions. According to the authority, there are about 160 universally binding collective agreements in Finland.
- No agreement at all. If no collective agreement applies, pay is what you agreed in your employment contract. If nothing was agreed, the Employment Contracts Act requires a wage "that is considered usual and reasonable for the work in question".
The key point for a pay-per-visit system is this sentence from the authority: "Employers may not ignore the minimum wage provisions of an applicable collective agreement even in an employment contract." The collective agreement page goes further: "Any clause in an employment contract that violates the corresponding provision in a universally binding collective agreement is null and void."
So the real question is not whether your employer calls it pay per visit. It is whether the total you receive, for the hours that legally count as your working time, reaches what the applicable collective agreement requires.
How to check your own situation
You can do most of this yourself before you talk to anyone.
Find the collective agreement. Look at your employment contract. It often names the collective agreement that applies. If it does not, ask your employer in writing which agreement it follows. The authority says universally binding collective agreements are published in the Finlex service, in Finnish and Swedish, and that the right agreement usually depends on the sector the employer works in.
Keep your own record of hours. Write down when you start, each visit, the time between visits, and when you finish. The authority notes that it is the employee's duty to give the employer the information needed to calculate pay, "such as records of the hours that they have worked". Your own notes are also useful evidence if there is a dispute later.
Read every pay slip. You have a right to one. The authority's pay page says employees "must be given a pay slip", and if you do not get one you should ask your supervisor and then contact the occupational safety and health authority.
Compare. Using the collective agreement, calculate what you would earn for the hours you believe count as working time, and compare it with what you were paid. For holiday pay, see annual leave and holiday pay in Finland.
What to do if the pay seems wrong
The authority's advice for employees follows a clear order:
- Ask your supervisor for a correction. Do it as soon as you notice the problem, and in any case before the next payday.
- Send a written claim. The authority publishes template forms (in doc format) for demanding outstanding pay, one for an ongoing employment relationship and one for when it has ended. Keep a copy of what you send.
- Contact your trade union if the employer still does not pay. If you are not a member, you can contact a legal aid office or a private lawyer.
- Contact the occupational safety and health authority about pay slips or other breaches it supervises. The authority states clearly that an inspector cannot help you file a lawsuit or act as your legal counsel in court.
If wages are paid late, you are entitled to late-payment interest under the Interest Act. If your final pay after the employment ends is late, the authority says you may also get full pay for each day of delay, for a maximum of six calendar days.
Extra hours and overtime
Pay per visit can hide a second problem: days that run longer than your agreed hours. In Finland, additional work (between your agreed hours and the statutory maximum) and overtime (above the statutory maximum) need your consent and the employer's initiative. The authority writes that "The employee's consent is always required for performing additional and overtime work." If your employer plans routes that regularly push your day past your agreed hours, that is a working-time question in itself, not only a pay question. If you worked in Norway, see unpaid wages, overtime and holiday pay in Norway.
Read next
- Annual leave in Finland: why your holiday balance does not grow month by month
- How to find a job in Finland without speaking Finnish in 2026
- Unpaid wages, overtime or holiday pay after a job in Norway ends
FAQ
Is pay per visit legal in Finnish home care?
No single rule bans it. What matters is that your total pay meets the applicable collective agreement for the hours that count as working time, and that any clause that breaks a universally binding agreement is void.
Does driving or walking between clients count as working time?
It depends. The general rule says travel time does not count if it is not work performance in itself, and each case is assessed separately. Your collective agreement may have more specific rules.
Where do I find my collective agreement?
Check your employment contract or ask your employer in writing. Universally binding agreements are published in Finlex in Finnish and Swedish.
Is there a minimum wage in Finland?
There is no general minimum wage law. Minimum pay comes from collective agreements; without one, the wage must be usual and reasonable for the work.
Does my employer have to give me a pay slip?
Yes. If you do not get one, ask your supervisor first, then contact the occupational safety and health authority.
How fast should I act?
Ask for a correction as soon as you notice an error, and in any case before the next payday, as the authority advises.
How Jobsy fits
We build Jobsy, a job search service for Europe that searches for you: you say what work you want, and Jobsy finds employers and recruitment agencies in Finland and five other countries, from a base of more than 2.6 million employers and recruitment and staffing agencies, and prepares personal messages in the recipient's language. It cannot fix a pay dispute, so the steps above stay between you, your employer and your union. If you decide to look for another home care employer, the first result is free, and Jobsy Active, which keeps the search going, costs €6.70 a month.
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