Pay is a compensation paid in return for work performed, under the terms of an employment contract. It can be paid in money, in fringe benefits or in other compensation with monetary value. Remuneration system is a management tool defined by an organisation and used to reward its personnel on the basis of its strategy. The organisation’s remuneration system can be written down in its remuneration policy paper.

Year-on-year increase in business school graduates’ level of pay

According to the annual pay level survey, the median salary of business school graduates was 5603 euros in October 2023.

• Business school graduates’ average pay without bonuses was 6 383 euros a month.
• The median pay of business school graduates rose 3,8 % year-on-year.
• The median pay in the private sector was 5 800 euros and 5 200 euros in the government sector. In municipal sector, the median pay was 5 200 euros.
• For recently graduated business school leavers, the starting median salary was 3 725 euros.

Prepare yourself for salary negotiations

Define your salary requirement with the help of our Salary Radar (in eLounge)

• Our Salary Counselling helps you define your salary requirement.
• Read more on our Improve your salary: Support for discussing salarie (YTN 2020).

Recommendations for summer job pay, starting salary of recent graduates and remuneration of thesis work

We publish annual recommendations for starting salaries of recent graduates and summer job pay of business school students. Please check also our recommendations for remuneration of thesis work.

Pay is a complex package

Your pay is based on several factors; the organisation, your responsibilities and you.

• Organisation: remuneration policy, industry, organisational structure, number of personnel, degree of internationalisation.
• Job content: required skills and competencies, responsibilities including managerial duties, responsibility for result or budget, required internal and external interaction, customers, the position’s degree of internationalisation, years of experience.
• Employee: education and experience, skills and competencies, responsibilities, cooperation and interpersonal skills, quality of work, achievements, performance.

Pay consists of three parts

• Level of complexity – What do you do? Equal pay is paid for equal work, and for work of equal value, and the amount of task-related component is defined on the basis of complexity classification – the minimum salary.
• Individual performance – How do you work? Expertise, interaction and cooperation, independence and judgment, quality of work, effectiveness and target orientation, management/leadership skills, other agreed basis.
• Results – What is achieved? Company-specific system decided by the company.

Career development and overall increases raise pay

Career development has more impact in salary development of business school graduates than overall increases as the reason for a pay rise usually is a change of position or employer.
When responsibilities stay the same, an overall increase under the terms of collective agreements of the public and private sector is the securest way for a business school graduate to get a pay rise. Nearly 42% of those business school graduates who responded our pay level survey had received a pay rise as a result of an overall increase.

Approximately half of our members enjoy overall increases. We actively promote the introduction of collective agreements for managerial employees also in those industries which do not yet have one. For example, in auditing and trade, many business school graduates work without an industry-specific collective agreement.