The sickness allowance cuts apply to more women than men, as an estimated 58 per cent of all sickness allowance recipients are women and 42 per cent are men, in accordance with the government's drafted proposal. In addition, around 15 per cent of pregnant female employees rely on sickness allowance before their pregnancy allowance starts.
The fact that men have higher income than women on average, leading to larger sickness allowances and thus larger cuts in euros in men’s sickness allowances, does not make this a gender-neutral issue in terms of its impacts,” says a statement from Tehy.
Crushing total impacts in female-dominate field
Combined with the government’s other impairments regarding employment and legislation, the impact of these cuts to sickness allowances would be crushing to the female-dominated care sector. At the same time, the government is pushing women’s wages down for good with its so-called labour market model while also undermining the position of part-time employees.
The sickness allowance cuts are especially hard on people with long-term illnesses and their employers. In Tehy’s view, the government should look for savings from elsewhere instead of using a measure that is highly detrimental to people with long-term illnesses and their employers.
If the government plan comes to fruition, the sickness allowance benefit will be cut on average by 13.3 per cent. For medium-income employees, the reduction is 15–20 per cent and for high-income earners more than 20 per cent.
Making cuts to social insurance benefits that are paid from side expenses of salaries and channelling these savings to benefit the state can be parallelled to increasing the taxation of both employees and corporations, in terms of their effects.
-This is not the way to support the national economy,” says Tehy specialist, lawyer Jarkko Pehkonen.
He also points out the promises of government parties on how the taxation of work or entrepreneurship would not be raised.
Further information:
Tehy specialist, lawyer Jarkko Pehkonen, [email protected] tel. +358 (0)40 531 5464.