Linköping Municipality leads the way in gender pay equality

Women also represent more than three-quarters of the municipal employees

The Swedish Municipality of Linköping was proud to announce that as of 1 August it has closed the gender pay gap, at least as far as its employees were concerned. The salary situation in the municipality is now equal between men and women, making Linköping something of a pioneer even in a progressive country like Sweden.

Moreover, the press office announced that the local civil servant workforce is composed of 78% women. And they get 78% of the total budget for salaries.

Salary mapping

The Municipality carries out a wage survey every year, called salary mapping. Its purpose is to detect, remedy and prevent unjustified pay differences between women and men who perform equal or equivalent work. About 9,600 people and their salaries are included in this year's survey.

The survey has previously registered a difference of 2 percent in favour of the men, but in recent years, overall salaries have slowly moved towards an equal situation.

“Sweden is one of the world's most equal countries, but the pay gap between women and men is still too great and development is progressing far too slowly. Therefore, it is gratifying that Linköping municipality is leading the way to ensure equal pay,” stated municipal councillor Denise Cassel (KD), who is responsible for personnel management.

She then added: “However, there is still a lot to work on to get equal pay at all levels, and we are of course working on that. This is work that requires perseverance.”

The Municipality of Linköping applies a decentralized wage setting. The HR manager decides on the individual employee's salary, but many other people are also involved in salary formation at different levels in the municipality. All of them must take into account the equality perspective in the work done when considering wage formation.