Wages for health care workers: Discursive strategies for wage equality in the Finnish Covid-19-publicity

The value of care work has become highlighted during the corona crisis all over the world. An important question is whether and how the economic conditions for care work correspond the cultural valuation of it. In the current economic political constellations, care work is considered as outside of the “real economic activities,” and care workers, who are most often women, have suffered from low wages. What kind of turning point is the corona crisis for this historical neglecting of the economic value of the care work? My paper presents the results of my yet to be published research on discursive political struggles over the wages of the mostly female health care workers in the context of Finnish public media during the corona pandemic. While the claims for wage raises in the care sector are anything but new and while gendered pay gap has for long been recognized as one of the main gender inequalities in Finland, the corona crisis has put the question in the spotlight. The analysis on the Finnish public media struggles on the wages of the care workers sheds light on following questions: What kind of “discursive strategies” are applied when making claims for or against the wage raises or other economic compensations for the health care workers during the corona pandemic? Whose voice and knowledge are heard in the public debate? What kind of turning point the corona crisis is for the feminist struggle for wage equality between men and women? The material of my research consists of news media articles that are collected in the most widely spread newspapers, tabloid magazines and news sites In Finland. The conducted critical discourse analysis shows that the question of the wages and other economic conditions of the health care sector is a central feature of the Finnish Covid-19 publicity. I argue that the highlighting of the care workers situation during the pandemic creates opportunities for disputing the long-standing economic undervaluation of care work. However, the societal and discursive power relations manifested in the public struggles pose obstacles for realizing the political goal of wage equality. In my paper I will elaborate the main argument through presenting the more specific results of my analysis. In my research I have found three main discursive strategies involved in negotiating the wages and other economic compensations of the health care workers: Firstly, the media articles describe and highlight the nurses’ experiences turned into political opinions during the pandemic. Secondly nurses’ interests vs. common good becomes a central topic in a debate featured between the labor market organizations representing the care sector, and the employer party. Thirdly, there is a deeper-level discussion present in the media concerning the underlying gendered structures exceeding temporary effects of the corona crisis that condition the wages in the public health care sector.