The union fee is determined based on your gross earnings, and it is tax deductible.
OAJ’s union fee is a small price to pay for the benefits offered by membership, such as advocacy and other membership benefits. The union fee is calculated from your gross earnings subject to withholding tax; gross earnings include your basic salary or wages and all of the bonuses paid based on your employment contract. These benefits include work experience or years of service allowance, cost-of-living allowance, remote area allowance, premium pay, holiday bonuses, holiday compensation and any taxable value of fringe benefits. The membership fee is not collected from the nonrecurring severance package if your employment is terminated.
The union fee is tax deductible. Your employer will usually deduct the union fee directly from your salary or wages once a month.
The union fee will be charged from the beginning of the month following the date of signing.
Fill in the membership application form
Union fee amount
The union fee includes OAJ’s union fee, the union fees for the regional and local associations and the fee for the unemployment fund.
The full union fee varies between associations, as each association can decide on its fees annually. The full amount is on average 1.1 per cent of the gross earnings subject to tax.
Calculate your fee!
You can check, calculate and pay your union fee at any time, even at night, in the new My Information section. You can use the calculator to pay the missing membership fees.
The system sends reminders about unpaid membership fees.
Union fees for more than one job
Persons working as a teacher for more than one educational institution or as a part-time teacher are obliged to pay union fees for all of the teaching work carried out at the different schools.
These union fees must be paid by the member using a bank transfer from OAJ’s membership services.
Exceptional union fees
If you are off work or on a working holiday from your teaching position and are temporarily carrying out work other than teaching work, you must during this time pay union fees based on the salary or wages from your other work. The union fees cannot exceed the amount that you would be obligated to pay from the salary you receive from your teaching position.
One example would be if you are on a leave of absence from your teaching position where your basic salary would be EUR 2,800 per month. You work as a project manager during your leave of absence and you receive EUR 3,500 in salary for this work. You pay to OAJ a percentage of the salary you receive from your teaching position, i.e. EUR 2,800, as your union fee.
When is the union fee lower?
The union fee is lower when you are
- on a leave of absence/working holiday without earnings
- unemployed
- on job alternation leave
- on unpaid study or child care leave
- on daily allowance paid by Kela or a pension company
Your union fee for the above-mentioned periods is EUR 6,00 per month (year 2020 EUR 8,50).
Report any changes to OAJ’s membership services using a change notification form. Only logged-in users can fill in this form.
If you are temporarily unemployed from your teaching work, for example for the summer, and you carry out other type of work during this period, your union fee is at least EUR 6,00 per month.
If you work abroad, your union fee is EUR 10 per month.
OAJ’s membership services sends bank transfer forms every six months to those members who have sent notification that they will pay their union fees themselves. These members include, for example, people on maternity leave, a leave of absence or job alternation leave and unemployed persons.