WORKPAY FI
How to read a Finnish payslip
Check the hours behind gross pay, the deductions that reduce it, and the reimbursements that can change the amount reaching your account.
Start with the pay period and earnings
First match the payslip’s dates to your own work records. Check ordinary hours, the hourly rate, overtime and other supplements separately. Gross pay means earnings before deductions. Taxable fringe benefits can increase taxable earnings without adding the same amount of cash to your bank transfer, so identify them before comparing totals.
A useful review follows one workday from your notes to the payslip. If a long shift appears under several pay codes, check whether the employer lists the basic wage for all hours and the overtime increases separately. Adding an overtime hour twice would overstate the expected gross pay.
Understand what is deducted
Withholding tax follows your valid tax card and its income ceiling. If the ceiling is exceeded, the additional rate applies to the excess unless you obtain an updated card. Keep track of total annual earnings, particularly when working for several employers.
Where church tax applies, it is already included in the tax-card calculation; do not subtract a separate church-tax percentage again. The employee’s pension and unemployment insurance contributions are separate payroll deductions when you are liable for them. Their rules and rates depend on the year and your circumstances. The employer’s own contribution share is not an extra employee deduction.
Reconcile wages and reimbursements
For a cash-only illustration, suppose a payslip shows €2,000 in wages, €400 withholding and €160 employee insurance contributions. With no other deductions, net wages are €1,440. Adding €100 of eligible tax-free expense reimbursements gives a €1,540 transfer. These invented deductions demonstrate the arithmetic, not current contribution rates.
Kilometre allowances and per diems qualify as tax-free reimbursements only when the applicable conditions and limits are met. A label on the payslip alone does not establish tax exemption. Compare the reimbursement with your travel record, then ask payroll about any unexplained pay code, missing hours or difference before changing your own records.
Find the difference before changing your hours
Suppose your records contain 12 paid weekday hours at €18, using eight regular hours, two hours at 150% and two at 200%. You expect €270. A payslip might instead show 12 basic hours × €18 = €216, a 50% increase for two hours = €18, and a 100% increase for two hours = €36. Those three lines also total €270. Compare the purpose of each pay code before treating a differently presented figure as missing pay.
If the payslip total is €243 under the same assumptions, the €27 difference equals one hour at €18 × 150%. That is a clue to investigate, not proof of the cause. Check whether one hour falls outside the payroll cut-off, whether a break was treated differently, and whether the calculation basis matches your contract. Do not change a true finish time just to make the totals agree.
Prepare a useful payroll question
Write down the pay period, the exact work date, the start and finish times, unpaid breaks, expected pay code and the amount shown. Include travel or allowance entries separately. For example: “On Tuesday my record is 07:00–19:30 with an unpaid break 12:00–12:30. I count 12 paid hours. Which payslip rows contain the basic pay and overtime increases for that day?”
In WORKPAY, compare the saved day with the same dates on your payslip, not automatically with a Monday–Sunday total. The app’s weekly figure adds daily estimates and does not resolve every weekly overtime arrangement. After payroll explains a difference, correct only an incorrect record or setting; keep the original payslip and the explanation together.
Try your own example times
The public shift checker shows elapsed time, subtracts an unpaid break and breaks down a simple gross-pay example. Your entries are not saved.
Check a shift →Sources
- Vero — Tax rate and income ceiling
- Vero — 2026 withholding calculation, sections 7–8
- Vero — Tax cards and prepayments, section 3.1.1
- Finnish Centre for Pensions — Pension contributions
- Employment Fund — Paying unemployment insurance contributions
- Incomes Register — Reporting reimbursements of expenses
Examples are WORKPAY’s own illustrations. App behavior and contractual pay entitlement are separate questions. Report unclear guidance or an error: hello@workpaying.com.
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