Despite the summer job situation being worse than before during the past summer, the average monthly earnings of business school students increased from last year. However, annual income dropped at the same time.  

The earnings of female and male students matched on an annual level: the median annual income for both was €10,000. In 2019, the figure stood at €11,000.  

As regards the comparison of salaries paid to men and women, there was an interesting swing: In 2019, female students earned more from their summer jobs on average than their male counterparts. The median salaries for men and women stood at €2,100 and €2,149, respectively. This year, men had a clear lead over women. The median salary for men was €2,200, while the women’s median stood at €2,100.  

The factor that can help explain the substantially wider gap is that the majority of the women who participated in the students’ summer job survey worked in customer service and sales tasks, which do not pay very well.  

These factors increased summer earnings  

Summer workers in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area earned significantly more on average than students who worked anywhere else in Finland. In the Metropolitan Area, the median pay was €2,205 while elsewhere in Finland it was €2,060.  

The number of credits the students had accumulated increased the pay level. The median salary was €2,046 for those who had fewer than 120 credits and €2,359 for those who had more than 220 credits.  

The amount of pay was also affected by whether or not the summer job was in the student’s own field of study. For business students, most of whom worked in their own fields, the median pay was €2,200. If the summer job did not match the student’s field at all, the median pay stood at €1,950. The difference increased significantly from the previous year.  

Pay recommendations for 2021 

The annual recommendations on students’ summer job pay are issued by the Finnish Business School Graduates’ working life committee. The new recommendations are listed in the table below. The recommendations are based on the business students’ summer job survey and the forecasts released by Akava Works.  

Visit our pay recommendations page for the recommendations on thesis pay or remuneration and the starting salary of recent business school graduates.

Text: Ida Levänen