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concerning the application and interpretation of agreements ever reach this tribunal, however; the great majority are settled through advice of counsel on the basis of adjudicated cases.

Until recently LO-SAF negotiations set the pattern of collective bargaining which determines the wages and working conditions of most wage earners and salaried employees. This procedure is changing, however, as the result of difficulties in the negotiations for the 1966-68 agreement between the LO and the SAF, between the SAF and the TCO affiliates representing salaried employees, and between the governmental Collective Bargaining Board and the four federations representing government employees (LO, TCO, SACO, and SR), which severely tested the Swedish collective bargaining system. The LO-SAF agreement for production workers was exceeded by the TCO-SAF agreement for white-collar workers, which in turn was exceeded by the agreements of government workers with the Collective Bargaining Board. The LO has taken the position that it will no longer set the wage pattern and permit its gains to be the basis for still further gains by other groups, leaving its workers in the same relative position as before.

E. Living conditions and social problems

1. Material welfare

Social welfare efforts by the government since the mid-1930's, together with a protracted period of internal and external peace and the highly developed technological and mercantile skills of the population, have given Sweden the highest level of living in Europe and the second highest in the world. In conformity with the Scandinavian pattern, the "good life" is evenly spread; contrasts in living standards between the social classes are less pronounced than in virtually any other country. The average Swede, while obtaining on the whole somewhat fewer material goods on a smaller money income than the average U.S. citizen, eats almost as well in terms of quantity and nutritional value and enjoys more social services and benefits. Only the confining housing accommodations—albeit adequate and comfortable by European standards—would seem to the middle class American to place restrictions on an otherwise comparable level of living.

If the social services and benefits enjoyed by the average Swede are second to none, so are his taxes. More than one-half of the total money income of a family of four goes for direct and indirect taxes, principally to support the pervasive welfare system. A typical budget for a family of four has three major items: direct taxes, household operation, and housing, in that order. Figure 16 depicts such a budget for both an industrial worker head of family with a total annual income of US$6,400 (SKr31,800) and a professional with a total income of $12,400 (SKr61,800). Figure 17 compares the distribution of family income in selected Western countries.

The average money income of a male industrial worker in Sweden in 1969 was between US$4,400 (SKr22,000) and $5,000 (SKr25,000). However, many families receive extra income from the wife's earnings or from secondary employment. In the white-collar sector, a business executive may earn an average income of between $10,000 (SKr50,000) and $12,000 (SKr60,000) per year. If both husband and wife work, the total income may reach $15,000 (SKr75,000) or more. The average income per gainfully employed male in various age groups in 1971 (in U.S. dollars) is shown in the following tabulation:

Since 1938-39 real private per capita consumption in Sweden has almost doubled—from US$1,090 to $1,930 in 1970 (at 1968 prices). This increase in

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