– Must adjust the policy – Dagsavisen

– That article made a great impression on me, and it is powerful to read when they talk so openly about the situation they are in, says Minister for Employment and Inclusion Tonje Brenna to Dagsavisen.

In the statistics, they are often called “permanently low paid”. But we call them what they are, the “working poor”. Dagsavisen has told the story of three of them:

Slavica and Maria must have several jobs to support the family. Juned from Bangladesh works seven days a week, but has to get money from his family to survive. Trade union representative Naemy sees how colleagues work hard for low wages.

Now the phenomenon of the “working poor” has come to Norway. Brenna doesn’t like that.

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Poor full-time workers

When we talk about poverty in Norway, we usually talk about those outside the working world. Those who, either because of age, illness or something else, cannot work. As minimum pensioners, disabled on the minimum rate, AAP recipients or social assistance recipients.

But from countries such as the USA, Great Britain and Germany, we know that in modern, rich, Western countries, even people with jobs can become poor. The so-called “working poor” has become a major problem in large parts of the world.

People who are in work, but whose income is still not sufficient. Who either need more jobs, supplementary social benefits or who live a life of great uncertainty and unpredictability, who cannot afford more than the most essential of goods and services.

The same has happened in Norway.

– This fully shows how important it is to have a well-organized working life. The industries that are examples here, where the salary is not enough to live on, are also industries with a low degree of organization – which means that the working life model does not work as well. That is part of the reason why we doubled the tax deduction on the trade union quota, as we want to increase the proportion of trade unions in these industries, says Brenna.

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Broad political efforts

The employees Dagsavisen has spoken to work in cleaning and the hotel and restaurant industry. They are all originally from other countries, but the statistics also show Norwegians with permanent full-time jobs who increasingly fall into the category of the working poor.

– Moving to another country and getting a foothold in a job market where you have a poor command of the language is very demanding. There will be fewer jobs to choose from, and it is more demanding to live in a society where you cannot make yourself fully understood, says Brenna.

– But it also shows that when people choose to stay here over time and eventually both master the language and get around or navigate well in society, things get better over time.

– But also non-immigrants with permanent full-time jobs increasingly fall into the working poor category, what could be the background for this?

– Now it is not the politicians who decide the salaries in the private sector, but we work broadly politically to make it possible to live a good life – such as reducing the price of daycare and after-school care, providing electricity support and double deductions on the union dues. It is important that politicians and labor organizations work together for people.

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Being influenced by foreign countries

She also recalls the change in the Working Environment Act, which states that full-time must be the main rule, and that they have strengthened part-time employees’ preferential rights.

– We must work with welfare policy broadly, and with working life policy broadly, so that regardless of who you are and what you work with, you should be able to live a good life in Norway.

– What do you think should be done in the future for this group of employees?

– In Norway, we know that some people work for low wages, but we know little about this particular group. We have major work underway to gather knowledge, where I will eventually get advice from the low wages committee, which I hope can help these groups, says Brenna.

– In Norway, we have historically had a well-organized working life, and a smaller gap from the bottom to the top salary, where the benefits are distributed better than in many other countries. At the same time, we are influenced by trends abroad. We must adjust the policy so that we can work with the new issues in such a way that we also safeguard the possibility of a continued good working life in Norway in the future.

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