What is an average salary in Sweden? Ravio's benchmarks expand
With its reputation as a haven of work-life balance, as well as a leader in cinnamon bun production and consumption, Sweden is slowly but surely becoming one of the global tech talent centres in Europe.
Hiring both locally and from abroad, the Sweden-based workforce is attracting major tech players – both homegrown, like Klarna, as well as international. Stockholm itself is home to eight tech unicorns over the last few years, including the likes of Spotify, Klarna, and Skype. It holds the record for the most billion-dollar startups per capita in Europe.
In particular, Stockholm came in second place – just behind Paris and before London – in a list of top 10 places in Europe for climate tech funding last year, securing €1.8bn in funding in that space – most notably with Northvolt’s $1.1bn convertible note in June 2022. Thanks to these types of investments, some have gone so far as to consider Sweden’s tech scene Europe’s “Sustainability Valley”.
With this rising interest in Sweden as a tech hub, Ravio is expanding its Swedish compensation benchmarks: growing the dataset by over 80% and adding over 15 new job titles and families, including top management roles, like CEO and COO.
By partnering with some of the leaders in Sweden’s tech scene, such as Resolution Games, Scrive, Quinyx, Anyfin, and Hedvig, Ravio’s benchmarks have expanded and are ripe with key compensation insights.
So, what’s special about Sweden’s tech talent market?
To a certain extent the Swedish talent market trends show that the country is following in the footsteps of other European-wide trends. Similarly to its peers, Sweden’s attrition rate is lower this year (17%) versus last year (23%), and the hiring trends are also decreasing year on year in line with its European counterparts (from 43% to 29%) – however, it differs from other major European countries in many other aspects.
It stands out particularly in terms of gender pay gap metrics.
How so? Let’s dive into the findings.
Sweden's gender pay gap
The gender pay gap is lower in Sweden than in the other major countries available through Ravio (which include UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain) – at 19% versus 33% across other geographies.
Most interestingly perhaps, Sweden also boasts one of the best proportions of women across businesses (44% overall), with 26% women in Executive roles and 48% in Management positions. This is in stark contrast to the European average of 20% and 36% respectively across Ravio’s other geographies.
Ravio dataset, August 2023
What drives these metrics to stand out from their European counterparts?
According to Mikeala Schonstrom, Head of People at AlexisHR, one of Ravio’s key partners* in the Nordics, it isn't a coincidence:
"Sweden's impressive gender equality stats aren't by chance. It's a mix of strong cultural leanings towards fairness, smart government policies like shared parental leave, and an education system that pushes gender equality from the get-go. Swedish companies also deserve a nod; they're big on diversity and making sure everyone gets a fair shot. Modern HR tech solutions, like those offered by AlexisHR and Ravio, are making it even easier for companies to tackle diversity and gender gap challenges head-on. Plus, practical measures like affordable childcare make a huge difference. It's a combo that works, showing that when everyone pitches in, and technology supports, real change happens."
Head of People at AlexisHR
For more insights on the gender pay gap in Europe, and what we can do to fix it, take a look at this great piece by Sifted.
Interested in accessing our Sweden benchmarks? Signing up to Ravio is simple – and you can even get 15% off Ravio Pro when you sign up via our AlexisHR partnership using discount code RNN5G7C.