Young people increasingly offered untaxed grey sector work
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Offers of illicit untaxed work are becoming an increasingly frequent temptation for young people starting their working careers.
"Some friends tipped me off about a job, or then they told their own employers that they could call me", says 24-year-old student Jussi (not his real name), who has done a number of short stints at a night restaurant in the south of Finland. He is paid in cash, and the income is not reported to tax authorities.
Work in the grey sector can be especially attractive if the student’s official income is starting to approach the limits for eligibility for student grants. Fast money is also an attraction: Jussi is paid cash on the same evening.
Jussi does not belong to a labour union, but offers of untaxed work also come to young people who are union members. An estimated 8,000 young members of the Service Union United PAM (under the age of 25) - about one in six - have been offered untaxed work.
PAM reports that its Helsinki office is contacted about once a week by someone who has been offered undocumented work.
The information comes by telephone. "They want to remain faceless. Common sense dictates that these kinds of things will not bear the light of day", says Irmeli Mäenpää, head of the office.
Jussi sometimes wrestles with his conscience. "But I will have time to pay plenty of those taxes when I get a regular job."
The restaurant business is notorious for paying workers under the table. Inspections in 2003-2005 revealed the payment of EUR 11 million in undocumented wages. However, even more went into the pockets of restaurant owners in the form of hidden dividends.
Restaurants in Finland put away an estimated EUR 32 million in illicit earnings.
Young people are recipients of illicit wages in other fields than the service sector. A survey by the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) reveals that nine percent of the younger members of its affiliate unions have been offered untaxed work. It is not known how many actually yielded to the temptation.
PAM feels that offers of grey work to young people are a serious matter. "It is unfortunate if employers do not meet their obligations in the first job that a young person has. It can lead to a cycle, when the habit turns into a practice", says the union’s vice president Kaarlo Julkunen.
In addition to young people, immigrants are newcomers to the Finnish labour market, and as such, are subject to offers from shady characters.
When a trade union official explains rules of Finnish labour practice to new immigrants attending an orientation course, listeners can have quite different experiences.
"What if work is always offered by people saying that you can come, but without a tax certificate?" Irmeli Mäenpää has heard people say.
The trend for untaxed work appears to be increasingly common. Five years ago, four percent of unemployed SAK members had been offered undocumented work. This has now risen to seven percent.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 31.3.2006 - TODAY |
 Young people increasingly offered untaxed grey sector work
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