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Supercell is in Finland, an EU country. From my understanding Supercell actually pays much higher than prevailing wages.

by rinon 11y ago

octaveguin 11y ago
Software developers are generally paid quite a bit less in Finland than in the valley (e.g. 5k euros is quite high for a dev there) with a comparable cost of living. It's expensive in Helsinki and you won't find better paid developers anywhere in the world outside of the states. Not to say the above is correct - it's no sweat shop and the few outliers like supercell and rovio cannot possibly be there because they threw a lot of labor at it. They're quality game companies that hit the market at the right time and knew their audience enough to keep them.
- Mikeb85 11y ago
  > Software developers are generally paid quite a bit less in Finland than in the valley Pretty sure Silicon Valley is an outlier when it comes to wages for software developers...
- ptaipale 11y ago
  Just to add about the employment costs in Finland: 5000 € gross salary means about 6000 € total cost with payroll-related taxes and mandatory payments included, and about 3250 € net pay per month after taxes. It's certainly no sweat shop, but I would consider it modest cost if you account for the quality of the developers.
  - octaveguin 11y ago
    You're absolutely right. Actually, Scandinavia in general has high quality developers on the cheap compared to the states. This while their quality of life seems on a whole better - seems a win/win to invest in or open satellite offices there :)
    - ptaipale 11y ago
      And, for good or bad, it is also much easier to both expand/hire and close/downsize in Scandinavia than in other parts of Europe. At least in Denmark and Finland, maybe less so in Sweden. (Norway is really expensive to hire anyone, though). This flexibility to lay off people is not always a win/win for employees (considering Nokia/ALU merger right now) but I think that investors generally overestimate the bureaucratic difficulties in Scandinavian countries in this respect. Scandinavian countries are very free market economies despite being "socialist".

Supercell is in Finland, an EU country. From my understanding Supercell actually pays much higher than prevailing wages.

by rinon 11y ago

Supercell is in Finland, an EU country. From my understanding Supercell actually pays much higher than prevailing wages.

octaveguin 11y ago

Software developers are generally paid quite a bit less in Finland than in the valley (e.g. 5k euros is quite high for a dev there) with a comparable cost of living. It's expensive in Helsinki and you won't find better paid developers anywhere in the world outside of the states. Not to say the above is correct - it's no sweat shop and the few outliers like supercell and rovio cannot possibly be there because they threw a lot of labor at it. They're quality game companies that hit the market at the right time and knew their audience enough to keep them.

Mikeb85 11y ago
> Software developers are generally paid quite a bit less in Finland than in the valley Pretty sure Silicon Valley is an outlier when it comes to wages for software developers...
ptaipale 11y ago
Just to add about the employment costs in Finland: 5000 € gross salary means about 6000 € total cost with payroll-related taxes and mandatory payments included, and about 3250 € net pay per month after taxes. It's certainly no sweat shop, but I would consider it modest cost if you account for the quality of the developers.
- octaveguin 11y ago
  You're absolutely right. Actually, Scandinavia in general has high quality developers on the cheap compared to the states. This while their quality of life seems on a whole better - seems a win/win to invest in or open satellite offices there :)
  - ptaipale 11y ago
    And, for good or bad, it is also much easier to both expand/hire and close/downsize in Scandinavia than in other parts of Europe. At least in Denmark and Finland, maybe less so in Sweden. (Norway is really expensive to hire anyone, though). This flexibility to lay off people is not always a win/win for employees (considering Nokia/ALU merger right now) but I think that investors generally overestimate the bureaucratic difficulties in Scandinavian countries in this respect. Scandinavian countries are very free market economies despite being "socialist".