Lähi-Tapiola pays interns €500 as many listings omit wages
Monday 12th October 2026 on 06:01 in
Finland
Insurance company Lähi-Tapiola pays full-time interns €500 a month, while more than half of internship adverts on job-search service Duunitori fail to state the pay or whether the position is unpaid, Yle reports.
The company is recruiting a full-time intern for its debt collection services. The fixed-term placement will last at least three months, be connected to the intern’s studies and begin in November.
Lähi-Tapiola’s director of people and culture, Susa Nikula, said the company had paid interns €500 a month for several years. Interns also receive staff benefits, including a lunch allowance worth about €200 a month and occupational health services.
Nikula said the company recognises that €500 is a low payment, but provides interns with a mentor and lighter tasks than those given to employees. Most interns are university or university of applied sciences students, though the company also takes on business administration students.
Duunitori examined more than 14,000 internship adverts published between January 2023 and September 28, 2026. In 52 per cent, the advert gave neither the pay nor whether the placement was unpaid. The remaining 48 per cent stated the pay or said the internship was unpaid.
The share of adverts explicitly offering unpaid internships rose from 4.5 per cent in January to September 2023 and 2024 to 7.3 per cent over the same periods in 2025 and 2026. Unpaid placements were especially common in human resources and recruitment, as well as marketing and communications.
When adverts gave a monthly salary, it was most often between €1,500 and €2,000. The median monthly pay for an intern was about €1,650, according to Duunitori. Public-sector employers were significantly more likely to disclose internship pay and pay interns.
Lähi-Tapiola takes on about 150 interns across Finland during a winter season. Nikula said most go on to work for the company after their placement, at a higher salary. A new trainee programme for recent graduates is also starting at the company, with a monthly salary of €3,000.