Gender Pay Gap In Sweden - Essay Example

Estimates vary on the extent of the pay gap, ranging between 15-25% (Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men, Opinion on Gender Pay Gap, 2007, pp.1-2). Like many other EU member states the gap between men's and women's pay in Sweden has not changed much in the last ten years and there is a general consensus that women are still earning almost 18% less than men. The paper explicitly analyzes and addresses the different aspects of Gender Pay Gap in Sweden. The data presented in the paper is based on different sources particularly EU study group reports.

It highlights different facts and figures about GPG in Sweden, its origins and Swedish government policy response to counter measures and to level out wage differences between women and man. It also gives few examples of good practices. And finally few recommendations are made to reduce the GPG IN Sweden. The gender pay gap refers to the difference between the wages earned by women and by men. In order to take into account differences in working hours and the impact of the income tax system, most estimates are based on differences in gross hourly wages.

The most common method is to calculate the gender pay gap as the ratio of women's average gross hourly wage to men's average gross hourly wage, or as the difference between men's and women's gross hourly wage as a percentage of men's average gross hourly wage. In this case, the gender pay gap indicates how many percentage points the earnings of men have to decrease in order to be equal to those of women. Another method is to use the earnings of women as a reference point. In that case, the gender pay gap indicates how many percentage points the earnings of women have to increase in order to be equal to those of men (Meulders et al., 2006).It is unimaginable in a democratic and equal society that women continue to earn on average 15% less than men and 25% less in the private sector.

Like many other EU member states the gap between men's and women's pay in Sweden has not changed much in the last ten years and there is a general consensus that women are still earning almost 18% less than men. Sweden's official wage statistics also indicate that over past ten years, the wage levels for women and men in various sectors of employment do not show any significant shift towards equality and has remained unchanged. According to the National Mediation Office 2003 annual report the gap between the sexes has remained largely unchanged over the past 10 years (Berg, 2004, para. 13). The same situation is reiterated by Anita Harriman, an expert on equal pay at the office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsman which was created in 1980 when Sweden passed its first law against gender discrimination in the workplace.

Anita Harriman some what dejectedly admits that they haven't been able to get at wage differentials. "Women in Sweden still earn only 82 percent of what men earn, and the only explanation for some of that disparity is wage discrimination" says Anita Harriman (Alfredsson, 2006, para. 1). In last couple of years the Swedish GPG has observed a fluctuating trend towards levelling GPG. Nevertheless, these inconsistent changes in levelling out