Women working as senior officials and managers in the civil service earn more than their male counterparts, according to a new survey from Akava. The average woman’s pay in senior positions for the state is 111 percent that of the average man’s.
At all other levels women’s pay was clearly lower than men’s. In the municipal and private sectors, women’s average pay did not exceed men’s in any single category.
Akava collected salary data for some 290,000 members from the year 2011. They found that overall women earned an average of 85 percent of men’s salaries. That applied to all sectors and job categories except that of senior managers in the civil service.
"When a women has better skills and better education then of course she gets paid better regardless of her gender,” commented Tarja Arkio of Akava.
It is also possible that mandarins are now following the lead of their political masters, who already have many female leaders in senior positions. Finland’s government currently has a majority of female ministers.
"The state sector has been exemplary in this, and has taken steps to ensure women rise to senior positions,” said Arkio. “Sure the political side has given plenty of signals on this.”
The picture is not as rosy elsewhere in the labour market. Women in senior positions in municipalities earn just 77 percent of what their male counterparts do, while in the private sector women’s wages do not approach those of men in any job category.
