Norway’s Wage Protection Gap
A government review exposes weaknesses in safeguards against labor exploitation, raising questions about who checks employers and how workers recover their pay.
Norway’s Ministry of Labor and Social Inclusion published findings on November 5 showing that safeguards against underpayment often fail to reach the people expected to use them.
Among surveyed businesses that had bought services from sectors with legally extended minimum wages, and knew about the system, 42 percent reported checking whether suppliers paid those wages.
The report, completed on October 15 by Samfunnsøkonomisk Analyse with research and legal partners, examines how responsibility travels through contracting chains. Its survey findings describe responding businesses; the researchers caution against treating them as precise national estimates.
