Pro News/ Katja Palhus /Juhani Artto

In October 2011 financial sector salaried employees earned, on average, EUR 2,736. The average pay of the sector's entire personnel was EUR 3,771. The pay level varies according to the nature and levels of the tasks and on the location. In the Greater Helsinki Region the pay level is higher than elsewhere in Finland.

- Financial sector tasks demand broad skills and expertise, but the average salaries of the sector's salaried employees fall around EUR 300 below the average of all wage and salary earners in Finland. And the average for women in the financial sector lags even further behind the average of all wage and salary earners, says Ira Saarnio, a unit manager of the financial sector at the trade union Pro.

According to Statistics Finland the average pay in Finland is EUR 3,040 per month.

In the financial sector pay rose by 2.9 per cent in one year. The rise was 0.8 per cent for salaried employees, 2.9 per cent for supervisors and experts and 3.4 per cent for people in leading positions.

Work careers of female and male salaried employees proceed at differing pace

During the statistical period, women's pay rose more than men's pay among salaried employees, supervisors and experts. However, women's pay was lower than men's pay at all task levels. The gap varied from EUR 400 to EUR 2,100 depending on the task levels.

The gap is partly explained by men tending to work more than women in demanding jobs and at jobs in the Greater Helsinki Region where the pay level is higher than in other regions of the country.

- The pay gap, however, includes some inexplicable elements, which must be tackled when producing equality plans and pay analysis. Also, skilled supervisors have a role to play in clarifying the gap, Saarnio states.

Pro's financial sector rank and file members work, for example, as financial advisors, financial managers and investment experts.

Women benefit when changing tasks

In the Greater Helsinki Region a female salaried employee has a 13 per cent higher salary than a woman doing identical tasks outside the Greater Helsinki Region. Among men the corresponding gap is 24 per cent.

To some extent reasons for this gap can be explained by comparing salaries of employees who had and who had not changed tasks during the year.

- One may conclude from the statistics that, among those who have not changed their tasks, male salaried employees tend to receive pay increases with greater ease than female salaried employees. Female salaried employees are likely to get most pay increases by changing their tasks, Saarnio says.

A third of salaried employees receive results-based bonuses

In 2011, about a third of salaried employees were paid results-based bonuses. Roughly half of the supervisors and experts and over a half of the people in leading positions received results-based bonuses.

Salaried employees working outside of the Greater Helsinki Region were paid results-based bonuses more often than salaried employees working in the Greater Helsinki Region. Among people in leading position the situation was vice versa.

Average results-based bonuses for female salaried employees were EUR 38 per month and for male salaried employees EUR 101 per month. Among supervisors and experts women received results-based bonuses of EUR 196 per month on average and men EUR 718.

- Not only the basic employment system but also the results-based bonuses widen the gender gap, says Antti Hakala, the Director of Pro's financial sector.

The above data is from the report on the development of earnings in the financial sector from October 2010 to October 2011. The report was the work of the statistics task force, made up of representatives of Pro, the trade union Nordea Unioni Suomi, senior salaried employees union organization YTN and the employers' Federation of Financial Services FFI.

The report is based on the pay data of 23,000 financial sector employees. The salaried employee jobs belong to the pay categories from 2 to 5.1, the supervisory and expert jobs to the pay category 5.2.

The Finnish language report is available for Pro's rank and file members on Pro's web site (työehtosopimukset -> rahoitusala).