DistantNews
Support us
Didn’t get the salary you wanted? Support your request with facts, experts advise
🇫🇮 Finland /Economy & Trade

Didn’t get the salary you wanted? Support your request with facts, experts advise

From Helsingin Sanomat · () Finnish

Translated from Finnish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • A review of 886 applications by Finnish recruitment company HRS Advisors found that salary expectations were distributed fairly evenly across the advertised ranges.
  • Experts say applicants should base salary requests on market data, job demands, experience, skills and the employer’s pay level.
  • The EU Pay Transparency Directive will make salary ranges more common in recruitment, but it will not determine what each applicant should request.

A salary range in a job advertisement does not automatically prompt applicants to ask for the highest figure. A review by Finnish recruitment company HRS Advisors found that expectations in 886 applications for specialist and executive roles were spread fairly evenly within the advertised ranges.

The finding challenges the belief that pay transparency would lead everyone to demand more, recruitment expert Katri Ikivuo said. Salary researcher Tuunia Keränen of the Finnish Association of Graduate Engineers, Tek, said applicants may not be timid at all. Their requests may instead reflect a realistic understanding of the market.

I am an athlete, and I am dedicated to weight training.

— Tuunia KeränenKeränen explains that highlighting one’s own skills and achievements does not come naturally to everyone.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive will require employers to publish a salary or salary range during recruitment and give employees access to information about pay levels. Finnish legislative changes related to the directive were expected to take effect at the start of the year. More jobseekers will therefore encounter salary ranges, which can make it easier to formulate a request, though the range alone does not reveal the right figure for an individual applicant.

If the salary request is roughly right, it shows that the applicant has understood the demands of the job. If the request is greatly over- or underestimated, it may raise the question of whether the applicant knows the labor market at all.

— Tuunia KeränenKeränen describes how employers may interpret a proposed salary.

Human resources director Katja Strömberg of HR services company Azets said pay depends on the demands of the job, the applicant’s skills, fairness and the company’s general pay level. Ikivuo and Keränen advised applicants to make realistic requests, without interpreting realism as modesty. Evidence can include salary surveys, reliable market data and, where possible, publicly available taxable earnings for people doing similar work. Several sources should be used.

An applicant with especially relevant skills, more evidence of achievement than the role requires or extensive experience can reasonably seek the upper end of the range. Keränen said a well-calibrated request shows that the applicant understands the job, while a request far above or below the likely level may raise questions about their knowledge of the labor market. Strömberg added that employers should not reject applicants simply because they ask for too much. Pay, she said, should not depend on who feels bold enough to request it.

Pay should not be determined by how boldly someone asks for it.

— Katja StrömbergStrömberg argues that employers should assess pay independently of an applicant’s negotiating confidence.
About this summary

Originally published by Helsingin Sanomat in Finnish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

More Stories

From Our Blog