Magazine
Norway: The country where no salaries are secret
By Lars Bevanger BBC News, Oslo
This week the British papers revelled in news about how much the BBC's on-air stars get paid, though the salaries of their counterparts in commercial TV remain under wraps. In Norway, there are no such secrets. Anyone can find out how much anyone else is paid - and it rarely causes problems.
In the past, your salary was published in a book. A list of everyone's income, assets and the tax they had paid, could be found on a shelf in the public library. These days, the information is online, just a few keystrokes away.
The change happened in 2001, and it had an instant impact.
"It became pure entertainment for many," says Tom Staavi, a former economics editor at the national daily, VG.
"At one stage you would automatically be told what your Facebook friends had earned, simply by logging on to Facebook. It was getting ridiculous."
Advertisement
Transparency is important, Staavi says, partly because Norwegians pay high levels of income tax - an average of 40.2% compared to 33.3% in the UK, according to Eurostat, while the EU average is just 30.1%.
"When you pay that much you have to know that everyone else is doing it, and you have to know that the money goes to something reasonable," he says.
"We [need to] have trust and confidence in both the tax system and in the social security system."
Image caption In 2015 Norwegian PM Erna Solberg earned 1,573,544 kroner (£151,001). - her assets were valued at 2,054,896 kroner (£197,179) and she paid 677,459 kroner (£65,011) in taxes
This is considered to far outweigh any problems that may be caused by envy.
In fact, in most workplaces, people have a fairly good idea how much their colleagues are earning, without having to look it up.
Wages in many sectors are set through collective agreements, and pay gaps are relatively narrow.
The gender pay gap is also narrow, by international standards. The World Economic Forum ranks Norway fifth out of 144 countries in terms of wage equality for similar work.
So the figures that flashed up on Facebook may not have taken many people by surprise. But at a certain point Tom Staavi and others lobbied the government to introduce measures that would encourage people to think twice before snooping on the salary details of a friend, neighbour or colleague.
People now have to log in using their national ID number in order to access the data on the tax authority's website, and for the last three years it has been impossible to search anonymously.
"Since 2014 it has been possible to find out who has been doing searches on your information," explains Hans Christian Holte, the head of Norway's tax authority.
"We saw a significant drop to about a 10th of the volume that was before. I think it has taken out the Peeping Tom mentality."
Image caption Hans Christian Holte encourages people to report tax
There are some three million taxpayers in Norway, out of a total population of 5.2 million. The tax authority logged 16.5 million searches in the year before restrictions were put into place. Today there are around two million searches per year.
In a recent survey 92% of people said they did not look up friends, family or acquaintances.
"Earlier I did do searches, but now it's visible if you do it, so I don't do it any more," says a woman I meet on the streets of Oslo, Nelly Bjorge.
"I was curious about some neighbours, and also about celebrities and royalty. It could be good to know if very rich people are cheating, but you don't always know. Because they have many ways of reducing their income."
The tax lists only tell you people's net income, net assets and tax paid. Someone with a vast property portfolio, for instance, would probably be worth far more than the figure found in the lists, because only the taxable property value is often far less than the current market value.
Image caption Everyone has been able to see how much anyone earns and the taxes they pay, since 1814
Hege Glad, a teacher from Fredrikstad south of Oslo, remembers that when she was young, adults used to queue up to examine the "enormous, thick" books of income and tax data, published once a year.
"I know my father was one of those looking. When he came home he was in a bad mood because our well-to-do neighbour was listed with little income, no assets and, most of all, a very small amount of tax paid," she says.
While she approves of Norway's transparency in this area, she notes that it can have negative effects. She has seen this in school.
"I remember once coming into school and a group of boys were very keen to tell me about the massive amounts of money the dad of one of the others in the class was making.
"I noticed a couple of other boys who usually were part of this gang had pulled back, saying little. The mood was not very nice," she says.
There have been other stories about children from low-income families who have been bullied in school, by classmates who looked up their parents' financial situation.
But Hans Christian Holte thinks the government currently has the balance about right.
The fact that anonymous searches are no longer permitted discourages criminals from searching for wealthy people to target.
And yet, the restrictions introduced in 2014 have not stopped whistleblowers reporting things they find suspicious.
"We like people to do searches which could help us in investigating tax evasion and the amount of tips that we get has not gone down," he says.
"Maybe the Peeping Tom part has more or less vanished, but you still have the legitimate reasons for searching and also some good effects of that openness."
Join the conversation - find us on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.
Share this story About sharing
Email
Facebook
Messenger
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
In today's Magazine
Watching Russia's Syrian build-up from central Istanbul
20 July 2017
The female psychologist running a men's prison
21 July 2017
Suited and booted: Mods today
20 July 2017
Two days in an underwater cave running out of oxygen
17 July 2017
Tales from the new Silk Road
14 July 2017
Magazine
Watching Russia's Syrian build-up from central Istanbul
20 July 2017
From the section Magazine
Full article Watching Russia's Syrian build-up from central Istanbul
The female psychologist running a men's prison
21 July 2017
From the section Magazine
Full article The female psychologist running a men's prison
Suited and booted: Mods today
20 July 2017
From the section Magazine
Full article Suited and booted: Mods today
More Videos from the BBC
'Appalling' cyclist hit-and-run captured on CCTV
Father films wrong girl at graduation ceremony
Paris swimming ban lifted
Sean Spicer: Risk of 'too many cooks'
Toddler used as distraction in lift wallet robbery
New man-made cave discovered below Nottingham
Recommended by Outbrain
Elsewhere on BBC
BBC Sport Discover the world of equestrian sports
BBC News Rising French singer Barbara Weldens dies on stage
BBC News Why the world's biggest investor backs the simplest investment
Recommended by Outbrain
You Might Also Like
BBC Culture Film review: Dunkirk is a five-star triumph
BBC Culture Striking photos of the ultimate playground for millionaires
BBC Culture The semi-sacred ‘third gender’ of South Asia
Top Stories
Spicer plays down 'row' after quitting
Donald Trump's spokesman is said to have resigned over the hiring of a new communications director.
2 hours ago
New press chief apologises to Trump
21 July 2017
Three Israelis killed in West Bank attack
5 hours ago
Features
The country where no salaries are secret
Video
Pupils fighting education segregation
How OJ Simpson led to Donald Trump
Monk's lifestyle exposes Thai Buddhism crisis
Week in pictures
A selection of the best news photographs from around the world, taken over the past week.
Video
Violinist fined £6 for protesting
Andrey Osipov has been put on trial twice for participating in a protest in March.
The rise of the Comic-Con festival
Who is Trump's new man Anthony Scaramucci?
Is there a future for three-way weddings?
Most Read
1 Boots apologises for morning-after pill response
2 Justine Damond shooting: Police chief Janee Harteau quits
3 Britain’s Got Talent champion dog Pudsey dies
4 Sean Spicer quits: White House press secretary plays down 'row'
5 Norway: The country where no salaries are secret
6 Prince George photo marks fourth birthday
7 Newspaper headlines: Some first class trains to end and Boots boycott call
8 Holiday flight departs after 38-hour delay
9 UK to bring in drone registration
10 UKIP AM uses racial slur about black MP Chuka Umunna
Advertisement
From Around the Web
Roche, MySugr Integrate Mobile Heath App With Diabetes… 360dx.com
Thermo Fisher, GenDx Ink Reseller Agreement for Ion Torrent in HLA Typing GenomeWeb
Your Images Look Good On Any Screen With Cloudinary Cloudinary - Cloud-based image management & upload
Cloudinary Can Remove Image Backgrounds For You — Easily Cloudinary - Cloud-based image management & upload
That's How You Find Super Cheap Hotels. tripsinsider
The Perfect Eye – Fashion Lifestyle Blog theperfecteye.com
Promoted content by Outbrain
Ads by Google
BBC News Services
On your mobile
On your connected tv
Get news alerts
Contact BBC News
Explore the BBC
Home
News
Sport
Weather
Shop
Earth
Travel
Capital
Culture
Autos
Future
TV
Radio
CBBC
CBeebies
Food
iWonder
Bitesize
Music
Arts
Make It Digital
Taster
Nature
Local
Terms of Use
About the BBC
Privacy Policy
Cookies
Accessibility Help
Parental Guidance
Contact the BBC
Advertise with us
Ad choices
Copyright © 2017 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment