Some Swedish municipality employees have to take a pay cut to have access to coffee at work, a survey shows. Municipalities in Sweden have been struggling to survive amidst rising costs, and cutbacks are predicted at Swedish schools.
‘Fika’ is a coffee-related tradition in Sweden that goes back at least a century in which people take a break to have a coffee and socialize, normally accompanied with a baked treat. The word ‘fika’ itself is an alteration of the word for coffee in Swedish, a language of people that consumed 7.6 kg of coffee per capita in 2020 as per Statista, the third most in the world.
It is thus a surprise to some Swedes that they have to take a salary cut in order to have a cup of coffee.
On the 3rd of January, Kommunalarbetaren, the official newspaper of the labor union Kommunal, released the results of a survey of the municipalities of Sweden, asking if they pay for their workers’ coffee. They asked about assistant nurses, preschool teachers and officials who work for the municipality. It turned out that 25% of the municipalities obligate assistant nurses to either pay for their own coffee or directly take a salary cut, and the figures are similar for preschool teachers and officials (24% and 28%).
The way of charging municipality employees for coffee varies from paying for coffee at vending machines or cafeterias, and the more bureaucratic option of taking a direct salary deduction to pay for one’s coffee habit. As per the reporting of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, employees at Hudiksvall municipality must tick a box in their contract next to the question “Do you drink coffee?” with a salary deduction for the employees who do so, no matter how much they drink.
According to Dagens Nyheter, deductions vary from 20 to 150 kroner per month (2.70 to 13.30 euros) for coffee, with a baked good included with the coffee for some, depending on the administration and cost.
The largest four municipalities by population in Sweden (Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö and Uppsala), offer employees coffee for free to employees.
But the regions of Tanum and Bohuslän, with populations of 12,000 and 300,000 respectively, have recently decided to remove free coffee.
Municipalities struggling with rising prices
The price of coffee has risen significantly in Sweden since 2022, which may account for the recent removal of free coffee from municipalities. Between December 2021 and 2022, there was an increase of 40% in the average price of coffee as per the official government database.
The inflation rate also increased from 4% to 12% between December 2021 and 2022, which has since lowered to 4.4% as of December 2023.
Municipalities told us that they have felt the impact of the change of price.
In municipalities such as Hudiksvall, “coffee has never been free of charge,” a municipality employee told Newsendip. Measures charging for coffee have long been in place in some Swedish municipalities prior to the most recent spike in coffee prices and inflation. However, employees in Hudiksvall used to put money in a jar to cover the cost of coffee. Nowadays, depending on the department of the employee, 30 to 60 kroner is deducted from monthly salary.
An employee from Uppsala municipality told us that they have felt the rising prices of coffee. They said the city is capable of giving employees coffee for free due to its ability to procure coffee through competitive bidding. Uppsala still provides coffee because of its procurement capacity as the fourth largest municipality and the importance of its coffee tradition. All the same, they said “everything costs more,” while explaining that coffee is “a big part” and a “strong tradition” of the municipality’s working culture.
Swedish municipalities have been suffering from rising costs as well as cutbacks from the government. Despite a government proposal in 2023 to increase grants to municipalities, they have not been coping well with Sweden’s financial struggles.
The Swedish Teachers’ Union (STU) released a statement in September 2023 that the government’s budget plan would not be sufficient to sustain municipal schools. The investment of 5.5 billion Swedish crowns (528 million dollars) that the government made was just a fraction of the 24 billion crowns deficit municipalities have, according to the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR). The result is that the STU predicted the quality of schools will suffer due to cutbacks and teacher layoffs.
In all this, the lack of free coffee, an element essential to Swedish work culture, is a reflection of the municipalities’ financial struggles.
