ImpACT International for Human Rights Policies said in a recent report that Denmark’s labour laws entrenches income inequality and the gender pay gap in the country. “Many of these problems are related to outdated labour laws, unwillingness to reform, and exhaustive bureaucratic procedures, under such processes reforms, have been lost in a system that prioritizes complex regulations over efficiency and results.”
The London-based think tank said that public sector employees suffer from these outdated laws. ImpACT said that Denmark’s discriminatory laws leave vulnerable people victim to wage capping, unequal pay, and even preventing female workers from receiving equal pay as their male counterparts. “This is partly due to the horizontal segregation taking place in the market where women and men occupy different professions.”
Nurses receive wages that account for 10 to 20% less than male-dominated positions. This issue has been further exacerbated with COVID-19 and the treatment of nurses and healthcare workers, where additional working hours and employment pressure was unprecedented. However, the Danish government did not alleviate this pressure.
ImpACT said that the Danish government created more equality within the labour market, but that was at the expense of workers’ rights and gender equality. While the wage scale-built salary increased 2.75%, public sectors dominated by female employees fell exponentially. Overall, the wage level for those in this profession is deliberately capped at a low rate. This limited bracket of salary increases has left female-dominated jobs at a disadvantage.
“When investigations were conducted on the correlation between levels of education and wages of public sector workers, it was found that the system is inherently embedded with gender roles.”
Regardless of their length and level of education, these perceived female professions were still placed at a lower wage bracket than that of male professions with similar levels of education.
Moreover, under the previous Civil Servant Act of 1919, an increase in pay for one group in the public sector would lead to collective bargaining demands from other employee groups. This has made the Danish government even more reluctant to reform its laws.
Finally, ImpACT International addressed the Danish government and demanded that the undervaluation of women in Denmark’s public sector should halt immediately.
“Denmark’s wage scale should be reviewed to allow a thorough evaluation of an employee’s educational background rather than capping employees with different capabilities at the same wage bracket,” ImpACT also said.
