Please understand that this is not me bashing Sweden at all, I am just a bit surprised that compensation packages aren’t that great in Sweden and I would like to understand how compensation packages in other countries are seen at. I worked in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and due to my work I know what the packages look like in France, Ireland, Spain and Italy (our headquarters is located in Belgium).

I am from the Netherlands and companies offer additional benefits such as:

  • Company cars (very cheap, you pay 100-500 euro per month and it includes private gas/electricity, private parking and all other costs associated with owning cars as well). I know this is limited by Swedish law (you even have to pay for switching the tyres even though this is mandatory…) For example, I drove a Tesla Model S for 180 euro per month and had 0 private costs for this, even when driving the car through Europe.
  • By law it is possible to work part-time. A lot of people work 32-36 hours per week. Several governmental organisations even have 36 hours as the maximum hours per week. In Sweden just 40 hours seems the norm.
  • 4-12 vacation weeks. Let’s say you have 24 days off per year and you start working in August, you can already take 2 days off in September without any debt as supposed to how it’s working in Sweden (what is up with the strange vacation days thing where you earn them between April and March???).
  • Good budgets for education purposes, especialy people with a ‘higher education job’ have between 2500 and 5000 euro per year. I know multiple people who did a masters while working, getting paid time off to study
  • Much more team building activities, ski trips and free food (again, this is limited by the Swedish government). When I was living in the Netherlands, I was invited to company and supplier/customer dinners almost every month, and I didn’t have to pay tax for it as it is in Sweden (my former colleagues are laughing when I tell them I need to pay tax on food when I am working late…)
  • A 13th or even 14th month of salary
  • Getting 100% of your salary when you are sick for a few days. If you are sick for a longer period (for instance a burnout), you get 70-80% but in most cases you get 100% of your salary, meaning there is not obstacle to calling sick

How is this seen in Sweden? I know a lot of people really like unions, but they want to achieve what already is the standard in some other countries in Europe. Is this one of the reasons why it is hard to find higher educated staff (something a lot of entrepeneurs within my network have issues with)? They just get much more salary in other countries and simply move over there.

I really like the working atmosphere here in Sweden, but when it comes to total compensation packages, it is very, very low, especially compared with the costs of living in Sweden. I have a good base salary, but without the additional benefits, at the end of the year I have less more to spend and save, even though my salary is 25% higher than when I moved here from the Netherlands.

Again, I don’t want to insult anything or anybody and I understand there are big differences, but when comparing the average salaries and compensations in Sweden to aruond 7 other European countries, it feels like Sweden stayed in the 90’s and all other countries innovated.

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The original was posted on /r/sweden by /u/ObservationalWizard at 2023-08-07 10:29:13+00:00.

  • Dannebot@leddit.danmark.partyOPMBSvenska
    1·
    3 years ago

    hankwinner at 2023-08-07 21:46:45+00:00 ID: jv7u2oj

    The main advantage is being able to accumulate capital in your company. Put it in long-term investments within a tax free placement form. Then use the company to surplant your earnings way past your active work life.

    The low tax (20%) dividends are based off your salary and are effectively taxed at about 37% (if based off taxable income in your company, income*0,794×0,8).

    An example: As a consultant working and billing say 1900 hours a year at 1000 sek an hour… You can take a salary of say 60 000 sek a month. It’s gonna cost you 946 TSEK. You’ll have about as much left. Say you have costs of 154 TSEK for a good pension contribution and some benefits. You then have a profit before tax of 800 KSEK.

    You pay 20,6% CIT. Leaves you with 635 TSEK. You can take a dividend of 360 TSEK yearly taxed at 20%. To get the same net income you would need to have a monthly salary of 108 000 SEK.

    Additionally you’ll have 275 000 taxed income per year accumulate in your company. Save that and invest it yearly over 20-30 years and you can retire comfortably.

    108 000 per month + a good amount of savings in the company for a person who can charge just 1000 sek an hour… that’s quite good I think. I guess it all depends on your relative burn rate though.

    Buying some office supplies is pointless in comparison.