Finland's top earner: where does the money come from?
The Finnish tax authority has published a list of all citizens who earned more than 120,000 euros in taxable income last year. For the third year in a row, Mikko Kuusi, co-found of food delivery company Wolt, tops the list, having earned more than 80 million euros in 2024. The company's approximately 450,000 couriers deliver food orders in more than 1,000 cities across the world.
At the couriers' expense
Iltalehti looks at how the founder of Wolt made his fortune:
“The company doesn't see its couriers, who deliver meals in rainy weather, as employees, but as independent contractors. This means that Wolt doesn't have to pay statutory pension or social security contributions or provide work equipment - all this is left to the couriers themselves. ... The situation is made more difficult by the fact that many Wolt couriers have a migrant background and have difficulties finding other work due to factors such as lacking language skills.”
Not just about making money
What lessons can we learn from the latest income charts, asks Kauppalehti:
“Which sectors we should send our children into, for example. For years, the advice has been something like this: 'Found a start-up in an emerging industry and scale it globally. Sell it to an international giant once the price is in the billions.' Of course, not everyone succeeds here, but Tax Day shows that entrepreneurship is worthwhile in many cases. ... But of course, we must not forget what many successful entrepreneurs emphasise: money is not the most important motivation for human endeavour.”