The Finnish government of Sanna Marin has proposed a new law allowing workers to see what their colleagues are earning if they suspect they are being discriminated against. The measure is part of a legislative package to reduce the pay gap between women and men.
The Sanna Marin government, made up of five parties, has presented a controversial measure to employers and unions to try to end the gender gap in wages. The difference in pay for doing the same job has become a serious problem in Finland.
Specific, on average a man earns more than 17% than a woman. The percentage is well above the OECD average of 12.5%. Finland is the seventh most unequal country among developed states. In Europe only countries like Estonian or Latvia surpass it.
One of the star measures is transparency in salaries. But the main employers’ organization, the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), is against it. “Making the publication of detailed information on individual wages mandatory would lead to general curiosity and deterioration of the work environment,” they explain to Reuters.
The Government has been working since November to develop the legal framework for measures aimed at reducing the wage gap. Employers left the working group because of the speed with which changes to the law were being proposed. This measure is scheduled to come into effect in 2023 as a bill. The confederation of businessmen continue to defend that the measure should not be mandatory.
The workers’ unions denounce delays in the law and demand legal resources to go beyond the announced transparency. “Closing the gap requires a change in attitudes and, therefore, it is necessary to change the law to change the culture,” denounces Katarina Murto, director of Akava, one of the main unions in the country.
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