Sweden: a new action plan for gender pay equality

‘Halva Makten, hela lönen’, (half the power all the pay). This is the message, power and influence maybe being shared but salaries should also be equal.. Thus the crux of the message declared on 26 December by Labor Minister Ylva Johansson and Culture and Democracy Minister Alice Bah Kuhnke when they presented a new action plan for equal remuneration. The new plan reviews all previous governmental action before then targeting two measures that should enable pay equality to finally be achieved, namely encourage the social partners to negotiate thus in the affected sectors and also putting sanctions in place as a deterrent.
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A mixed picture. ‘Men and women should both have the same economic independence and the same security throughout their lives. This isn’t currently the case,’ criticized Ylva Johansson when presenting the new action plan (ny handlingsplan för jämställda livsinkomster). Pay differences still persist in spite of measures that have been undertaken in several areas and which were listed by the Minister in the first part of the document, namely, education, part time work, working conditions, illnesse

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