How this Finnish company closed its gender wage gap

Finland has a history of being the happiest country in the world, and it’s also among the most successful at advancing gender equity.

A lot of that has to do with the laws and social policies it has in place. Many Nordic countries have generous paid leave policies, government-subsidized child care, free college (which can level access to high-paying jobs), pay gap reporting requirements and pay transparency policies.

Businesses take pay equity seriously, too. At Framery, a Finnish manufacturing company with roughly 400 employees, the difference between what men and women get paid is roughly 1%.

That’s better than Finland’s overall gender pay gap of 16%, according to OECD data.

Anni Hallila, Framery’s head of people and culture, explains three strategies that helped effectively close the gender pay gap at the company.

Framery’s compensation team does a pay audit for their workforce twice a year, Hallila says.

The company’s workforce is split between those who work in manufacturing and office settings. Last year, there was a 1% pay gap among genders in the manufacturing workforce, with women being paid 1% more than men on average; meanwhile, among office workers, men were paid roughly 1% more than women.

Routine pay audits are important to account for periodic promotions, raises and other salary adjustments to “make sure that we are not creating unjustified salary differences between men and women,” Hallila says.

In 2023, the European Parliament and Council approved the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which requires employers in European Union countries to review their compensation practices (including base pay, benefits, bonuses and other incentives) and publish their results to ensure gender equity. The directive also requires that employers communicate salary ranges on job ads or to candidates before the interview stage. The measures are set to go into effect in 2026.

Meanwhile, at Framery, the company currently publishes its pay ratios between men and women in annual sustainability reports.

The company began this practice in 2022 “to make sure people actually know this is an important thing for us, and that we are working actively toward ensuring an equitable pay for women and men,” Hallila says.

As for promotions, Hallila says they consider gender equity when advancing employees into new roles and top manager levels. “There shouldn’t be a reason why there should be less women going toward more demanding roles as men,” she says.

That said, Hallila acknowledges Framery’s workforce isn’t equally split by gender. Men represent about 70% of the company’s total headcount. Framery has slightly better parity in its leadership ranks, where 62% of leaders are men compared to 38% of women.

The company wants to reach a 60/40 gender split in the future, but it has yet to set a deadline for that goal, Hallila says.

Overall, she says, Framery’s equitable pay and promotions policies are “about equal treatment of employees.”

Want to land your dream job? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers really look for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay. Use discount code NEWGRAD to get 50% off from 5/1/24 to 6/30/24.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.