Finland repeals the Equal Pay Act amid coalition differences
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HELSINKI, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Finland has canceled plans to reform equality legislation to narrow the pay gap between men and women, the government said in a statement on Monday, citing insurmountable differences between the parties in the ruling coalition.
“The work to prevent gender-based wage discrimination and to promote wage equality continues in other government measures that support equal pay,” said Equality Minister Thomas Blomqvist in his statement.
The government said the views of the five parties in the centre-left coalition had been too far apart and they had not reached an agreement on how to use the legislation to strengthen pay transparency, as the prime minister promised in a program published after Sanna. Marin took over the reins at the end of 2019.
Last November, Blomqvist told Reuters that Finland would adopt a stricter approach to “eliminating unjustified wage differences”. Read more
With an average wage difference of 16 percent, Finland ranked 38th in the OECD wage equality classification in 2021, well behind its Nordic countries.
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Reported by Essi Lehto; Editing by Jan Harvey and David Holmes
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