The Helsinki-Uusimaa metropolitan region stands out in Finland for being the region with the highest average wages in the country.
According to Statistics Finland’s Structure of Earnings statistics, the median for total earnings of full-time wage and salary earners was € 3,139 per month in 2019. Of the regions, median earnings were highest in Helsinki-Uusimaa (3,441 euros) and lowest in South Savo (2,829 euros).
Besides earnings for regular working hours, total earnings also include all bonuses and benefits in kind, but not one-off pay items such as performance bonuses or holiday bonuses.
In both Helsinki-Uusimaa and other regions, the most common monthly earnings of full-time wage and salary earners were between 2,500 and 2,999 euros. In other regions, earnings were more common in relative terms in this bracket and in the bracket below (2,000 to 2,499 euros), while wages and salaries from 3,500 euros up were more common in Helsinki-Uusimaa than in the rest of the country.
Source: Statistics Finland.
6,000 euros per month
The earnings of the highest earning decile are clearly higher in Helsinki-Uusimaa than in other regions. The highest earning decile earned 6,000 euros or more in Uusimaa while in the other regions the earnings of the highest decile were 4,747 euros or more.
In the capital metropolitan area, the highest earning decile earned at least 2.6 times more than the lowest earning decile.
The earnings of the lowest earning decile (first decile) in Uusimaa do not differ as much from the corresponding earnings level in other regions. In Helsinki-Uusimaa, 10% of full-time wage and salary earners earned 2,301 euros or less, while in the rest of the country the lowest decile earned 2,187 euros or less.
In the whole country the lowest decile earned 2,222 euros or less and the highest decile 5,238 euros or more.
Source: Statistics Finland.
Reasons behind the differences
According to statistics Finland, differences in average earnings and dispersion of earnings between regions are partly caused by differences in the structures of wage and salary earners between regions. More people work in professional occupations in the Helsinki and Uusimaa region than in other parts of the country.
In Helsinki-Uusimaa, around 30% of wage and salary earners worked in professional occupations, while in other regions the share was around 20%. In these occupational groups, the earnings level was on average higher than in other occupations.
Among the industries, the highest median earnings were recorded in information and communication activities (4,220 euros). The median of total earnings of full-time wage and salary earners was lowest in accommodation and food service activities (2,383 euros).
