It all started with the collective bargaining in 1991, when the two sides of industry agreed that 0.9 per cent of wages should be paid into a pension scheme. Wage earners were to pay one third, while employers were to pay two thirds. Since then we have seen a continuous increase in pension contributions in connection with subsequent collective bargaining.
Today, the pension contributions of many wage earners constitute more than 10 per cent of their basic wages, and the labour-market pension funds – i.e. excluding ATP, LD Pensions and the Special Pension Fund – manage assets of approximately kr. 1,300 billion, equivalent to almost 85 per cent of GDP. As Chart 1 shows, this figure has almost quadrupled in 15 years.