What we pay in taxes and what we get for our money are relevant questions. Answering the first one is significantly easier than the second, write the authors of the debate article, and point to a serious weakness in today's Sweden: voters lack knowledge of what they actually pay in taxes and fees to the public sector.
The government and parliament should pass a law requiring all employers to provide a complete pay slip to their employees every month, they write further.
The pay slip should provide a comprehensive picture of how the total salary is distributed between net salary, taxes, and pension contributions. Central salary concepts such as total salary, gross salary, and net salary should be openly disclosed.
The benefits of a "transparency principle" would, according to the writers, be that the democratic information deficit disappears and that it becomes a part of public education.
Specifying the pension contribution on the pay slip also provides security for employees and makes it easier to get a picture of their actual pension savings.
A complete pay slip would, according to the authors of the debate article, also counteract unscrupulous and criminal employers.
