STTK on Equal Pay Day: Export model and unambitious promotion of salary transparency undermine pay equality

This year, the Equal Pay Day is on Tuesday, 5 November. On that day, women’s earnings account for 84.7% of men’s earnings. The gender pay gap has narrowed by one day from last year.

STTK is highly concerned about the current pay equality trend in Finland.
“In many respects, the legislative amendments in the Government Programme are sadly rolling back the progress that has slowly been made over the years,” regrets President Antti Palola.

In his opinion, the most alarming change in terms of pay equality is the Government’s intent to regulate the export model (the fact that the export sector determines the level of pay rises for all other sectors) by law.
“The draft law has been widely criticised particularly due to its impact on wages in predominantly female sectors. The change would be highly detrimental from the pay equality perspective, as a key factor behind the narrowing of the pay gap since last year was the wage settlement that is higher than the general wage settlement, negotiated in 2022, for the predominantly female municipal and health and wellness sectors.

Another entry in the Government Programme that undermines pay equality is the national enforcement of the Pay Transparency Directive in accordance with the minimum level.
“At best, the implementation of the Directive would introduce more transparent wage structures to all workplaces in Finland, which would enable the detection of wage discrimination and the effective reduction of unexplained pay gaps. In the worst case scenario, the Government Programme would lead to national legislation becoming open to interpretation and unclear, which would mean that discriminatory wage practices would not be identified,” Palola says.

STTK opposes the regulation of the export model by law. The contractual autonomy of the social partners must be safeguarded to ensure that trade unions will continue to have equal opportunities to promote pay equality when negotiating working conditions and wages.
“If the possibility to introduce pay rises in predominantly female sectors is limited by law and discriminatory wage structures cannot be detected in the future due to defective enforcement of the Pay Transparency Directive, what will become of pay equality? It is highly possible that the pay gap will become even wider as a result of these and other inequalities in working life.”

Influencer cooperation to promote pay equality

In addition to the export model and the Pay Transparency Directive, there are other underlying reasons for the gender pay gap.
“At the current pace of gender equality development, we cannot afford to take any steps backward in any of the areas affecting pay equality,” Antti Palola emphasises.

This year, STTK has collaborated with influencers in connection with the Equal Pay Day under the theme “Last payday of the year”. The influencers involved in the campaign are Eve Kulmala, the Tiedenaiset community and Rita Jokinen. The content published by the influencers covers information about the Equal Pay Day, factors affecting pay equality and the influencers’ own experiences. The influencer campaign is realised together with PING Helsinki.

Additional information from STTK: Antti Palola, tel. +358 40 509 6030.