YTN data 2024: Median salary exceeded EUR 5,000, real salaries increased for the first time in two years
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Text: Mikko Nikula
Image: Opa Latvala
The median salary of YTN affiliates in October 2024 was EUR 5,020 per month. It increased by EUR 99, or 2.0 per cent, from the previous year. Since inflation remained lower than this, members’ purchasing power also increased. The data is based on YTN data 2024.
Consumer prices increased by 1.1 per cent from October 2023 to October 2024. In the previous two years, the rate of inflation had been so high that salary increases did not keep up.
“After a break of a couple of years, salaries rose more than prices. In other words, real salaries increased, as compared to a decrease, according to YTN data 2023 and 2022,” says researcher Tuunia Keränen.
The median salary increased by more than EUR 5,000 for the first time, according to YTN data. The average salary was EUR 5,488, which was 2.2% more than in 2023. The median starting salary, i.e. the salary of people who have just entered working life, for YTN affiliates was EUR 3,550, showing an increase of approximately EUR 100 when compared to the previous year.
THE VAST MAJORITY WILL NOT RECEIVE MERIT INCREASES AND EMPLOYER QUOTA
79 per cent of the respondents reported that their salary had increased from the previous year. Clearly the most common reason for the salary increase was the general increase based on the collective agreement, which 57 per cent of all the respondents reported having received.
18 per cent of all respondents had received a personal salary increase, i.e. a merit increase. 11 per cent of the respondents had received an employer quota in accordance with the collective agreement, i.e. increases that the employer can distribute locally as it chooses.
“The results once again show that the general increases set out in collective agreements are important for the salary development of senior salaried employees. Merit increases concern a considerably small group,” says Keränen.
The share of those receiving merit increases has long been around 20 per cent of YTN data respondents, and it even seems to be decreasing.
“In the survey data for 2022, the share was 23 per cent, in 2023 21 per cent and now 18 per cent. In relative terms, the younger age groups receive most merit increases.
Merit increases were most common in the auditing and consulting branches, the food industry and the financial sector, with approximately one quarter of the respondents having received them. In the Associations sector and universities of applied sciences, only about one in ten respondents received merit increases.
OVER 26,000 RESPONDENTS – “UNIQUE RESEARCH DATA”
YTN data is an annual survey compiled from the labour market surveys of the member unions of the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff. The 2024 YTN data is based on the results of surveys of nine unions.
The surveys are carried out in autumn, and the results were completed in the spring. The total number of respondents in the latest YTN data survey is just over 26,000.
“This actually provides unique research data with information on salaries and working conditions. The number of respondents is very large. The changes between different years are usually minor, which can be considered to be a sign that the information is reliable,” says Tuunia Keränen.
Of the respondents in YTN data, 62 per cent were men and 38 per cent women. The proportion of women was highest in Associations, 73%. Industry is more male dominant than the service sector.
The median age of the respondents was 43 years and the median number of years of employment was 14. The position level was 65% for experts and 20% for middle management.
40% of the respondents were on the payroll of small or medium-sized companies. Approximately one-fifth of the respondents were employed by an organisation with more than 3,000 employees, and 5% of the respondents worked in an organisation with less than ten employees. Measured in terms of the number of employees, the largest employers were in the forest industry, and the smallest in Associations.
HIGHEST SALARIES ONCE AGAIN IN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR
The highest salaries were paid in the financial sector, with a median salary of EUR 6,006. The financial sector has also had the highest salaries in the YTN data of previous years. The next highest median salaries were in the insurance industry (EUR 5,900) and the forest industry (EUR 5,500).
With a median salary of EUR 4,350, the consulting sector represents the other end of the salary statistics when comparing branches. The median salary in Associations was EUR 4,452 and in universities of applied sciences EUR 4,460.
Almost one in two of the respondents felt that their workload was, at least sometimes, too high. 9 per cent reported that they work too much all the time, and 39 per cent occasionally. Overtime was most commonly compensated without increases on a “one-to-one” basis, either as money or leisure time, as was reported by 37% of respondents who worked overtime. Of those who worked overtime, 28% received increases in accordance with the Working Hours Act, but 23% did not receive separate compensation or the overtime was included in their basic salary.
Respondents to YTN data estimated the future outlook to be slightly poorer than last autumn. Among others, 67% of the respondents considered the situation at their own workplace to be stable or fairly stable, compared to 70% in 2023.
There were significant differences between sectors.
“15 per cent of all the respondents considered terminations of employment to be possible or likely at their workplace, and 38 per cent in the ICT sector. On the other hand, the risk of layoffs was perceived to be greater in the construction industry and the consulting sector than elsewhere,” says Tuunia Keränen.
Read more about YTN data here (in Finnish): https://data.ytn.fi/