Efficiency Level Keeping Wages Low, Says Supermarket CEO
Workers in Prisma supermarkets in Finland are paid two to three times more than their counterparts in Estonia as the number of clients they serve is far higher, Janne Lihavainen, CEO of the Estonian branch of the company, has said.
Speaking Thursday at an Äripäev-organized forum on salaries, Lihavainen said that the difference is not laziness, but various IT-solutions for such things as ordering goods for stores.
He said that such solutions need large investments, and with Estonia's lower volumes, the investments do not make sense.
“In Estonia, we are trying to come up with a poor man's solution,” Lihavainen said, adding that his company is in the process of adapting Scandinavian solutions in Estonia, but not all of them can be taken on board by Estonian supermarkets.
Talking about salary increases, Lihavainen said the pressure to increase wages is very strong in Tallinn, but in Narva or Tartu, the situation is far better for the company.
