The officer took to Facebook to create a page calling for a higher entry-level salary for police in Sweden. Police currently have an opening salary of 21,300 kronor ($3,336) a month. The Facebook group has called for an increase to 25,000 kronor – amounting to a raise of almost 4,000 kronor each month.
The page has proved popular with several thousand fans sharing their support – and not just other police officers. The response proved a pleasing start to the campaign for the creator of the account, a 30-year-old officer earning 21,300 kronor a month.
"I don't want to have salary negotiations through Facebook," he told the Göteborgs-Posten newspaper (GP). "I've started the page on my own initiative to highlight to the public how badly paid police officers are."
"Everyone knows nurses and teachers are poorly paid. But how many people know that police are too?"
He added that it can be hard to get approval for a job on the side.
While negotiations are still underway, the police union has rejected an offer of 23,000 kronor a month as a starting salary, stating that were the offer to last until next October, an increase of 1,700 would simply "fade away in value" over time.
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