Norway: The country where no salaries are secret

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.

Norway: The country where no salaries are secret _97037271_ernasolberg

Norway: The country where no salaries are secret _97037271_ernasolberg

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."

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.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40669239

Norway: The country where no salaries are secret

Norway: The country where no salaries are secret

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