Teller Report

Nurse's drastic proposal: "Reduce my salary"

11/25/2023, 2:36:25 PM

Highlights: Uppsala University Hospital expects a loss of one billion kronor for 2023. Staff are encouraged to help each other to save money. Nurse David Holmberg came up with an odd suggestion: To reduce his own salary. "We have since had discussions about a voluntary salary reduction and it has been an interesting one," says Holmberg. The response from the manager was delayed but has only recently arrived. In the email, the manager writes "at the next salary review, I can set your salary low"

Uppsala University Hospital expects a loss of one billion kronor for 2023. Staff are encouraged to help each other to save money. Nurse David Holmberg then came up with an odd suggestion: To reduce his own salary. "We have since had discussions about a voluntary salary reduction and it has been an interesting one," says David Holmberg.


When David Holmberg, who works as a specialist nurse at the orthogeriatric ward at the hospital, came to think of a voluntary pay cut, he asked his immediate manager – who then informed him that it was not allowed. That's why he asked a question on the intranet about why this was the case. He never got an answer to the question and then decided to write an opinion piece in UNT.

Discussion on salary reduction

The text had a great impact and the immediate manager in the department thought it was nicely written. Several colleagues began to question the idea of a pay cut.

"There has been an interesting discussion about voluntary salary reductions, where some people don't think it should be allowed," says David Holmberg.

Gets a reduced salary

His proposal means that he would receive the same low salary as the person with the lowest salary in the department. Which, according to David Holmberg, is probably an assistant nurse.

The response from the manager was delayed but has only recently arrived. In the email, the manager writes "at the next salary review, I can set your salary low". David Holmberg interprets this to mean that his salary will be reduced at the next salary negotiation.

In the video: "A lot of colleagues wonder about what I've been thinking"