A job with benefits: Swedish town eyes paid sex hour
Local official suggests giving municipal workers a break to go home and get busy
A local official in Sweden has a novel proposal to improve work-life balance and lift the local birth rate: Give municipal employees an hour-long paid break each week to go home and have sex.
Sweden is already celebrated for its generous welfare state, including 480 days of paid parental leave, universal health care and a common ritual of coffee and pastry, known as fika, which is considered sacrosanct.
Per-Erik Muskos, a 42-year-old councillor from the northern town of Overtornea, wants to add to those benefits, by offering the municipality’s 550 employees the right to subsidized sex. In introducing his proposal this week, he told fellow members of the town council that it would give a nudge to the dwindling local population, add spice to aging marriages and improve morale.
The idea quickly got attention all over Sweden, where for at least some, it was a welcome distraction from U.S. President Donald Trump’s vague reference to problems the country was having with immigration, which were strongly denied by baffled Swedes.
Noting that “sex is also a great form of exercise and has documented positive effects on well-being,” Muskos suggested that local municipal employees could use an hour of the workweek already allotted for fitness activities to go home and have sex with their spouses or partners instead. The motion, which is expected to be voted on in the spring, needs a simple majority to be passed by the 31-member council. As of now, opinion on the council is divided.
“We should encourage procreation. I believe that sex is often in short supply. Everyday life is stressful and the children are at home,” Muskos explained in his motion in Overtornea, a town of about 4,500 in the picturesque and remote Torne Valley. “This could be an opportunity for couples to have their own time, only for each other.”
His proposal has generated praise, ridicule and criticism. Some critics fear single workers could while away their working hours on the dating app Tinder trying to find a date for their weekly interlude.
When Muskos introduced the motion Monday, some council members giggled while others said they were not amused. But befitting a progressive country which has long been perceived as a beacon of sexual enlightenment — including blissfully kitsch performances at the Eurovision Song Contest — the proposal was taken in stride.
Muskos told colleagues the proposal was no joke, though he acknowledged problems such as enforcement. It would be difficult to tell, for example, if an employee eschewed sex in favour of a walk in the country.