The ear­nings-re­la­ted pen­sion sys­tem quickly beca­me a con­si­de­rable part of the cri­sis ma­na­ge­ment pac­ka­ge in Fin­land. The mea­su­res were agreed on in tri­par­ti­te ne­go­tia­tions between la­bour mar­ket or­ga­ni­sa­tions and the Go­vern­ment.

Emplo­yers’ ear­nings-re­la­ted pen­sion cont­ri­bu­tions have been tem­po­ra­ri­ly lowe­red by around 2% (until the end of the year). This mea­su­re is fi­nanced by cut­ting into the EMU buf­fer (to a value of €900 mil­lion). Busi­nes­ses whose ope­ra­tions have stop­ped comple­te­ly due to the epi­de­mic can post­po­ne the pay­ment of their ear­nings-re­la­ted pen­sion cont­ri­bu­tions by three months at the most.

The above mea­su­res will re­duce the cont­ri­bu­tion inco­me of pen­sion pro­vi­ders in 2020 by an es­ti­ma­ted one bil­lion euros. The loss will be com­pen­sa­ted by rai­sing the emplo­yer cont­ri­bu­tions in 2022–2025.

The fi­nancing of the ear­nings-re­la­ted pen­sion sys­tem is also wea­ke­ned by the re­duced value of pen­sion asset in­vest­ments. By mid-March, the stock prices had gone down by 30 per cent. This has con­si­de­rably re­duced the sol­vency buf­fers of pen­sion pro­vi­ders.