"During my workplace visits around the country, it has become very clear to me that involuntary part-time work and fragmentation of working hours are a plague that must be eradicated," says LO's chairman Johan Lindholm in a comment to TT.
Only about half of all working women have a permanent full-time employment. They lose an average of over 5,400 kronor per month on it, according to the union's processing of the SCB's wage structure statistics from 2023. The year before, the gap was over 5,000 kronor, based on actual paid salary, a gap that is likely to continue to increase (in kronor) as wages rise.
For working men, the difference is 2,300 kronor and usually based on a higher general wage level. Average wages in typical women's occupations are clearly lower.
Of course, there are many who work part-time voluntarily. But surveys, including those conducted by the trade union Handels, show that the majority of part-time employees want to work more.
The entire LO is therefore driving in this year's wage movement the common demand that it should become more expensive for employers to have part-time employees, primarily by paying overtime, compared to the contracted time, in the same way as when a full-time employee works overtime.
