The Kommunal municipal trade union has criticized the National Mediation Office for its narrow view of the scope for pay bargaining and failure to acknowledge the need for action to close the gender pay gap. The union agrees that wage developments should take into account the pressures facing the manufacturing and export industries but that there has to be scope for some flexibility otherwise the lower paying sectors that are dominated by women workers will never catch up with other sectors and the gender pay gap will never be closed.
Read more at > Kommunal (SV)
Local government challenges Mediation Office's narrow view on wages
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Slight narrowing of pay gap
The annual report on wage developments from the LO confederation notes that on average women's pay increased by 3.0% in 2005 compared to 2.6% for men. It said, however, there is still a long way to go before there is pay equality with blue collar women earning around SEK 2700 (€290) a month less than blue collar men. Overall blue collar workers saw pay rise by 2.5% in 2005 compared to 3.0% for white collar workers so both enjoyed real pay increases of over 2.0% as inflation was only 0.4%. Read more at > LO (EN)