The background to "Loma raha"

Many of you have been asking me as to the background to the "lomaraha" that many Finns receive. It is equal to a month's extra salary (but taxed at 50%). The translation means "Holiday Money".

In the old days, Finns would take the whole month of July of from work, to recover from a hard winter and to enjoy the summer sunshine. Work in the entire country would drag to an almost full stop as the Finns pushed off to their holiday homes, etc.

If the summer had been great and the look of August being an Indian Summer was a prospect, many Finns would not turn up for work on the 1st of August.

The Finnish companies had a real problem as this is a small country and every person's input counted.

To counteract this trend, the employers started an incentive called "Holiday Money".

If the people came back from their holiday on the 1st of August, they got a bonus of a month's salary.

This practice continued till finally it became enshrined as a worker's right.

Soon, everyone was getting an extra month's salary as "Lomaraha".

For 11 month's work the Finns got 13 month's salary.

I do not know if this system is still prevalent, but all through my working life I did enjoy the extra month's salary.

In my case, as I did not take my annual holiday in July, I got an extra week's holiday in December. Instead of 4 weeks paid annual holiday, I got 5 weeks. With one week off for Christmas and New Year, that made it 6 weeks. As I planned to give some lectures in India or UK, I got one week extra as a working week off from work - making it 7 weeks. 13 months salary for 10 months and 1 week work!!!!

Of course, this old man is now on a perpetual holiday! :-)