YEL income calculator makes it easier to determine an entrepreneur’s confirmed YEL income

The confirmed YEL income is an estimate of the monetary value of the entrepreneur's work contribution. The confirmed income of an entrepreneur must be equivalent to the annual salary that the entrepreneur would have to pay for the same work to another person who has the same level of professional skills as the entrepreneur. The guidelines prepared by the Finnish Centre for Pensions for pension insurance companies are not new but were already being used for determining confirmed income. The common guidelines have now been converted into an easy-to-use calculator.

When you enter into the YEL calculator your company’s line of business and an estimate of your company’s annual turnover, it displays a recommendation of the range within which your confirmed YEL income should be. If you feel that the confirmed income recommendation does not correspond to your own work contribution in the company, you can apply for a different confirmed income amount to be used for the insurance and provide information on the factors based on which you think your confirmed income should be determined at a level that differs from the recommendation.

The confirmed income recommendation provided by the calculator is based on the salary data of employees in your company’s line of business and on turnover data for your company and the industry in question. In addition, the amount of confirmed income may be affected, for example, by the following factors: entrepreneurial activities in several companies, the seasonal nature of entrepreneurship, the number of employees and business partners, the salary of the highest-paid employee and the entrepreneur’s professional skills. Ultimately, the pension insurance company determines the appropriate confirmed income amount based on the information that was provided.

As an entrepreneur, your accrued pension and other social security cover are calculated based on the confirmed YEL income. For example, the amount of an entrepreneur’s sickness allowance, parental allowance and unemployment benefit are based on the confirmed income. Your confirmed income also determines the YEL insurance contribution that you pay.

In June, the Government submitted to Parliament a proposal to amend the Self-employed Persons’ Pension Act (YEL) as of 1 January 2023. The purpose of the amendment is to improve entrepreneurs’ pension coverage and ensure that entrepreneurs’ confirmed income better corresponds to the value of their work contribution.

The government bill proposes that the information used for determining confirmed income is specified so that confirmed income would be estimated and confirmed by pension insurance companies in a more transparent and consistent manner. In the future, the YEL income calculator will be developed based on user experiences and the decisions concerning the government bill.


Learn more about the YEL income calculator 

More information on the determination of confirmed YEL income is available on our website Determination of YEL income

Please also read the Finnish Centre for Pension’s news release: New calculation service makes it easier to estimate entrepreneurs’ confirmed income (in Finnish)