Sweden snubs EU move to post salaries in job ads
Less than three months before EU member states were supposed to implement the EU Pay Transparency Directive into national law, the Swedish government does not plan to submit a bill to parliament.
Under the EU Pay Transparency Directive, employers will have to tell job applicants the starting salary or salary range either in the job ad or before the first interview.
The member states are supposed to implement the directive by June 7th, 2026, but the Swedish government said it wants to postpone the initiative.
It added that rather than implementing it, it wants to renegotiate the terms to simplify the rules.
"The aim of the directive is good. Unjustified pay gaps must be fought and more tools are needed. At the same time, it has become increasingly clear how great the challenges are in implementing the directive in a national context, both for us in Sweden and in other EU countries,. A relaunch at EU level is needed, and we're now taking the initiative to do so," said Equality Minister Nina Larsson in a statement.
Sweden voted no to the directive when it was adopted in the spring of 2023.
Swedish vocabulary: pay/salary – lön
Swedish Riksbank chief warns of protracted war in Iran
Sweden's Riksbank governor, Erik Thedéen, warned of the economic impact of a protracted war in Iran.
"I believe that, unfortunately, we have to prepare for the fact that the war – and the global economic consequences of the war – could be both extensive and protracted," he said in a panel discussion at SNS/Swedish House of Finance on Monday.
He predicted that higher fuel prices as a result of the conflict will push up inflation, arguing that monetary policy can help prevent price increases from spreading to other goods and services than energy.
"One insight from recent years is that it is risky for a central bank to assume that it is possible to see through supply shocks. If the risks of spillover effects and persistently higher inflation increase, we may need to tighten monetary policy," he said.
Some experts have predicted that the Riksbank may be forced to again hike interest rates to prevent rampaging inflation, but Thedéen cautioned against quick decisions.
"Inflation is relatively low to start with and we do not yet know how strong the inflationary impulses resulting from the war will be. A lot has happened in just four weeks and a lot can happen in the five weeks left until our next interest rate decision. We are maintaining a steady course, but are ready to swerve if necessary," he said.
Swedish vocabulary: prepare – förbereda (oss på)
Critics hit out at poll showing Liberal boost
A recent poll by Demoskop which suggested that the Liberals have almost doubled their support following their pact with the Sweden Democrats has been criticised.
Other pollsters have not seen a similar increase, reports the Omni newssite.
Demoskop uses a self-recruited panel, which its critics argue makes its results unscientific.
Fredrik Furtenbach, a political journalist for public radio programme Ekot, told Dagens Media that Demoskop "is the worst thing to happen to the public survey industry in a long time".
Defenders of the method, on the other hand, argue that the new methods are necessary when fewer respondents pick up their phone, and that Demoskop presented the closest prediction of the election result in both 2018 and 2022.
Swedish vocabulary: self-recruited – självrekryterad
Is this Sweden's ugliest newbuild?
A new multistorey building in Trelleborg, southern Sweden, has been named the ugliest newbuild in Sweden by the group Arkitektupproret.
The building was designed by Hemsö/Jais Landén Krantz and houses Trelleborg's city council on the bottom floor, and Hotel Willow higher up.
"The building seems to have been developed in a brainstorming session in which an architect said 'let's try all modernist tricks at once'. The result is a cacophony of materials, shapes and colours which scream without really saying anything," writes Arkitekturupproret
Arkitekturupproret was launched in 2014 as a Facebook group and became a registered NGO two years later, before launching its so-called Kasper Kalkon prize in 2017. The prize is intended as a counterpart to the prestigious Kasper Salin prize awarded by industry organisation Sveriges Arkitekter.
Swedish vocabulary: ugly – ful
Comments