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1. The Committee notes the detailed information provided by the Government in its reports as well as the comments from the Central Organization of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK), the Finnish Confederation of Salaried Employees (STTK), the Confederation of Unions for Academic Professionals (AKAVA), the Confederation of Finnish Industry and Employers (TT), the Employer’s Confederation of Services Industries in Finland (Palvelutyönantajat), the Commission of Local Authority Employers (KT), and the State Employer’s Office (VTML).

2. Further to its previous observations, the Committee notes that the gender wage gap has remained unchanged in recent years and that women’s average earnings in regular work were about 80 per cent of the equivalent earnings of men. It also notes from the study entitled Gender Wage Differentials in the Finnish Labour Market of 2002 that the gross wage differential is the lowest among manufacturing workers and local government workers (just under 20 per cent and just above 20 per cent respectively) and the highest for salaried manufacturing employees (over 30 per cent). The study indicates, however, that when excluding the smallest and most segregated occupational categories of manufacturing wage earners, the wage difference drops to 15 per cent. The central Government and private sector employees have a wage differential of approximately 25 per cent. The Committee notes that AKAVA provides more or less similar data on wage differentials in the public and private sectors, but that it indicates that it is impossible to draw direct conclusions from these figures about the real extent of pay discrimination because more accurate figures have to take into account information on sector, job title, job description, training and experience. AKAVA states that if the pay differentials due to differences in job title were removed, this alone would reduce the need to raise women’s average pay from 37 per cent to 18 per cent.

3. The Committee notes that the Government’s report and the abovementioned study indicate that half of the wage gap is due to differences in job descriptions and careers and the fact that women work in lower-paid sectors and occupations than those in which men work. Proportionately the biggest group of women lagging behind their male colleagues in terms of remuneration consists of well-educated and older women in demanding jobs, especially in the private sector. The differential in the municipal sector is largely explained by occupational segregation and the slightly lower educational attainment of women compared to men while, in the manufacturing industries, it is accruing age that leads to a widening gap between senior males and senior females. In the private sector, segregated selection into occupations generates a wage differential of almost 15 percentage points. The Committee notes that SAK, STTK, TT and Palvelutyönantajat all indicate that pay parity problems arise from the gender division by occupation and that a narrowing of the wage gap is possible only when imbalances in the gender ratio in different occupations are corrected.  However, TT and Palvelutyönantajat also state that studies on pay differentials between men and women in different service sectors should take into account the difficulty of work performed in each sector, which is important for comparing pay levels for the same work. They point out that studies carried out in the banking sectors indicate that the most significant explanatory factor was the difficulty rating of the job and that studies in the metal and engineering industries also concluded that by taking into account job difficulty and other factors, men’s pay was only 2-5 per cent higher than that of women.

4. The Committee notes in this regard that the application of the difficulty ratings for job evaluation purposes began in 2002 and that pay systems based on difficulty ratings and personal performance, and on the evaluation of these factors, are currently in operation in 26 government departments and agencies, covering 14 per cent of all government employees. However, it also states that no job evaluation system-based difficulty ratings are in use for senior salaried and professional personnel. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on difficulty-based pay systems, including for senior personnel, and their impact on the wage gap between men and women.

5. The Committee notes from the information provided by the VTML and the Government that the collective agreements concluded for the state and municipal employees between 2001 and 2005 seek to reduce pay differentials by incorporating an equality allowance and a sectoral allowance. The VTML states that for the collective agreement concluded between the Ministry of Finance and the principal state employee organizations for 2003-05, the effect of the equality allowance for women was 0.21 per cent. The TT and Palvelutyönantajat indicate that the equality allowance based on incomes policy agreements is problematic for competitiveness, because it affects sectors in which labour costs rise faster than productivity. The sectors affected have a high proportion of low-income and women employees. They state that within the sectors, pay increases are no longer aimed at women or the lower paid, but are general increments paid to all, regardless of the employees’ gender or pay level. The STTK believes that equality allowances for women have a definite corrective effect on the pay differentials between female-dominated and male-dominated sectors, but that reducing pay differentials will require that job evaluation be extended to cover different sectors. The Committee asks the Government to continue to provide information on all efforts taken to identify and correct pay differentials between male-dominated and female-dominated sectors due to the undervaluation of work women perform or any other directly or indirectly related sex-bias factors.

6. Right to obtain information. The STTK states that ensuring pay equity requires that the right of shop stewards to obtain data be broadened to include the opportunity to obtain earnings statistics by pay category and gender from the employers. The KT indicates that the general municipal collective agreement requires that shop stewards be provided once a year with information on the basic salaries and job-specific salaries and individual-specific pay components of the personnel represented by them. The Committee notes that under the shop steward agreement between the Palvelutyönantajat and the SAK as well as the general agreement between the TT and the SAK, shop stewards have the right to obtain, either once a year or quarterly, data on the pay category and level and structure of earnings. However, the agreements provide that information on employee groups of fewer than six employees is not to be disclosed for reasons of privacy. The Committee also notes that the amendment of 26 January of 2001 to section 10(1) of the Equality Act provides that if there are reasonable grounds to believe that wage discrimination due to sex has occurred, the employer shall be obliged to disclose information on the wages and employment conditions of the persons concerned to the shop steward or the workers’ representative, who may reveal this information. It asks the Government to provide information on the practical application and enforcement of section 10(1) of the Equality Act, including with regard to employee groups of fewer than six employees.

The Committee is raising other points in a request directly addressed to the Government.