Compare how much is paid for the same job in the USA compared to Finland – this is what everyday life is like in the USA | Foreign countries

For an American, things are cheap, but the basics of life are expensive. We compared salaries and living prices here and in the United States.

Compared to Finns, American salaries are clearly higher in some places. You can get everyday things for almost the same price as in Finland. So you could imagine that the American has something to worry about. However, this is not the whole truth.

Americans pay large sums for things that are heavily supported in Finland with tax funds.

During his campaign Donald Trump promised improvements to the economic situation of Americans. However, his election as the future president of the United States may actually make the economic situation of Americans more difficult than it is now. The tariffs planned by Trump would weaken the gross national product and raise the general price level.

How does an American wage earner Earn compared to a Finnish one? For comparison, we chose ten general professions and the average salaries paid for them. Comparable salary information has been retrieved from the statistics of state labor authorities.

For example, a nurse in the United States enjoys more than twice the salary compared to her Finnish colleague. The coefficient is even higher when comparing the salaries of doctors, lawyers and software developers.

The salaries of restaurant chefs and retail salespeople are the closest to each other in this comparison. In the United States, their annual earnings are only slightly higher than in Finland. At this level of merit, there are bound to be difficulties, as we will see in a moment.

In many products, the price difference is small

Prices of everyday life and commodity prices in America are almost at the Finnish level, despite the higher income level. For example, the Playstation 5 Slim model costs a couple of euros less than 400 euros before VAT in the Finnish market. In the United States, the corresponding price is about 15 euros more. In the United States, the value added tax varies from state to state, but is lower than in Finland.

There are even bigger differences. When looking for a game console, you can stop by, for example, to eat a McDonald’s Big Mac meal. A Finn’s wallet will be lighter by 11.20 euros plus VAT from a trip to the mountains, while an American traveling with the same things will become poorer in euros by around 8.80 plus VAT.

Two very different societies

When we move on to examine the necessities of life heavily subsidized by tax funds in Finland, the necessity of higher wages in the United States begins to be revealed.

For a family with one child living in Helsinki, the maximum day care fee is 311 euros per month. In Finland, the co-payment for daycare is determined by the family’s income and is often significantly lower than this.

In the United States, daycare fees vary by region and child’s age. For example, children under the age of two will be more expensive than children of one year old, and in a sparsely populated area it will be cheaper than in the city.

Toddler care median monthly price in a cheaper, less populated area, it is around 600 euros per month. In larger population centers, the median price of daycare is over 1,000 euros per month.

There is also one of the notable differences in the organization of medical care.

Here in Finland, someone with a broken leg is treated with tax funds, and the costs are not necessarily even thought of. Instead, an American must have health insurance costing hundreds of euros per month or a thick bank account.

If the fracture is treated without surgery, you can get by with a four-figure sum. If a plaster alone is not enough and our American ends up on the operating table, the bill will probably already be in the five digits.

When paying these and other bills, Americans are also expected to save, for example, for their children’s future studies and their own retirement.

‘s correspondent Yuri Von Bonsdorff describes the position of the American consumer in his story Everyday life from the world: American life is saving from the womb to the grave.

Prices have risen faster than wages

Prices rose sharply in both Finland and the United States in 2022–2023 due to the corona pandemic and Russia’s war of aggression.

The rate of price increase has slowed down, but inflation in the US is still significantly stronger than in Finland, says Labore’s Forecasting Manager Juho Koistinen.

Inflation means a phenomenon where the same amount of money gets less and less each month or year.

– The key issue is the rate of increase in wages. It has remained faster in the United States than in Finland, and that somewhat compensates for the increase in prices, he says.

According to Koistinen, there is a lack of demand in Finland, which keeps product prices low. In the United States, the economy is growing rapidly, and prices are following suit.

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