The concepts described on these pages are words and expressions used in statistics with a specific, limited meaning. In everyday speech the word may have a different meaning. In connection with each definition you can find information about which sets of statistics use the concept.
If you are looking for statistical figures, go from the definition to the statistics page.
Employee
A wage and salary earner (employee) is a person, who has an employment relationship with an employer and who is compensated for work performed. Wage and salary earners are either salaried employees or workers of the employer.
In statistics on wages and salaries, wage and salary earners are as a rule not divided into salaried employees and workers. A division can, however, be made according to profession or pay system. In statistics on wages and salaries, entrepreneurs paying their own salaries are not classified as wage and salary earners, as their earnings usually differ too much from the earnings of other similar wage and salary earners. In these statistics a single wage and salary earner may have several employment relationships that are, however, all treated as separate instances of wage and salary earner in the statistics.
Self-employed persons who pay even part of their earnings as salary to themselves are recorded as wage and salary earners in the labour cost statistics.
Validity of the definition
- Valid
Source organisation
- Tilastokeskus
Wage and salary earners (employees) are defined as persons aged between 18 and 74 who, according to the register data of employment statistics, have a valid employment relationship or employment pension insurance in the last week of the year. Persons employed by labour policy measures (other than business start-up allowance) in the last week of the year are also defined as wage and salary earners. It is required that the person defined as a wage and salary earner has received wage and salary income during the year, and that the person is not performing military or non-military service or has not been an unemployed job seeker in the job seeker register on the last day of the year.
If the person has self-employed person's pension insurance valid at the same time as the employment relationship, the person is defined as a wage and salary earner if his/her wage and salary income generated during the year is higher than his/her entrepreneurial income and he/she has not been a self-employed person in the statistics in the previous year.
If the person is not a self-employed person, unemployed, student, pensioner, performing non-military service or military service and his/her wage and salary income exceeds a defined income limit, he/she is defined as a wage and salary earner even if according to the employment relationship data, he/she did not have a valid employment relationship.
Statistics using the definition
Validity of the definition
- Valid
Wage and salary earners (employees) are defined as persons aged betweeen 18 and 74 who according to the employment register of a pension insurance scheme are in an employment relationship during the last week of the year and who according to the Ministry of Labour's register of job applicants are not unemployed on the last working day of the year, and who are not conscripts or conscientious objectors during the last week of the year. It is further required that if, in addition to being employed the person is paying premiums on a self-employed person's pension insurance, his or her taxable wage income shall exceed his/her income from entrepreneurship. If a person aged 15-74 is not self-employed, unemployed, a student, pensioner, conscript or conscientious objector and if his/her wage income exceeds the specified level of earnings (which is set by means of inference from the data on wage and salary earners from the Labour Force Survey), that person will be classified as a wage and salary earner even if the source data on employment indicate that he/she is not in an employment relationship.
Statistics using the definition
Validity of the definition
- 1 January 2005 - 31 December 2005
Source organisation
- Tilastokeskus
Wage and salary earners (employees) are defined as persons aged betweeen 15 and 74 who according to the employment register of a pension insurance scheme are in an employment relationship during the last week of the year and who according to the Ministry of Labour's register of job applicants are not unemployed on the last working day of the year, and who are not conscripts or conscientious objectors during the last week of the year. It is further required that if, in addition to being employed the person is paying premiums on a self-employed person's pension insurance, his or her taxable wage income shall exceed his/her income from entrepreneurship. If a person aged 15-74 is not self-employed, unemployed, a student, pensioner, conscript or conscientious objector and if his/her wage income exceeds the specified level of earnings (which is set by means of inference from the data on wage and salary earners from the Labour Force Survey), that person will be classified as a wage and salary earner even if the source data on employment indicate that he/she is not in an employment relationship.
Statistics using the definition
Validity of the definition
- 1 January 1995 - 31 December 2004
Source organisation
- Tilastokeskus
Source organisation
- Tilastokeskus
An employee is a person who works and receives pay or compensation for it. Employees are classified into workers and salaried employees.
Statistics using the definition
Validity of the definition
- Valid
Source organisation
- Tilastokeskus
Employees are defined as all persons who, by agreement, work for another resident institutional unit and receive a remuneration.
Employees are classified here if they are not also in self-employment which constitutes their principal activity: in that case they are classified under self employed persons. (ESA 1995 11.12)
Statistics using the definition
Validity of the definition
- Valid
Source organisation
- EU
Jaa