Swedish Wage-Earner Funds: An Experiment in Economic Democracy

Abstract

This article analyzes the performance of the “wage-earner funds” established in Sweden in 1983—collective share-holding funds financed by special payroll and profits taxes. The authors' analysis indicates that although the wage-earner funds generally met the financial objectives set by the 1983 legislation, their significance in promoting “wage solidarity” (wage determination based on the work performed rather than on firm or industry profitability) and in providing workers with substantial influence over corporate decisions was limited by the size of their stockholdings and the seven-year (1984–90) restriction on the inflow of revenues into the funds. The authors conclude that the funds achieved little in terms of furthering economic democracy when compared to the effects of the network of industrial and economic democracy legislation enacted in the 1970s in Sweden.