I'm an exec in Finland, the happiest country in the world—3 ways my company closed our gender wage gap

Finland has a history of being the happiest country in the world, and it's among the most gender-equal, too.

A lot of that has to do with the laws and social policies it has in place. Many Nordic countries have generous paid leave policies, government-subsidized child care, free college (which can level access to high-paying jobs), pay gap reporting requirements and pay transparency policies.

Businesses take pay equity seriously, too. At Framery, a Finnish manufacturing company with roughly 400 employees, the difference between what men and women get paid is roughly 1%.

That's better than Finland's gender pay gap of 16%, according to OECD data.

Anni Hallila, Framery's head of people and culture, explains three strategies that helped them effectively close their business's gender pay gap.

Framery's compensation team does a pay audit for their workforce twice a year, Hallila says.

The company's workforce is split between those who work on the manufacturing side, as well as corporate employees who work in an office setting. Last year, there was a 1% pay gap among genders in their manufacturing workforce, where women were paid 1% more than men on average; meanwhile, among their office workers, men were paid roughly 1% more than women.

Routine pay audits are important to account for periodic promotions, raises and other salary adjustments to "make sure that we are not creating unjustified salary differences between men and women," Hallila says.

In 2023, the European Parliament and Council approved the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which requires employers in EU countries to review their compensation practices (including base pay, benefits, bonuses and other incentives) and publish their results to ensure gender equity. The directive