It’s often hard to shake off the myth that the Nordic countries are a paradise of social democracy. New policy reforms are often misrepresented, overblown, and made into symbols of “Nordic exceptionalism” in international media. A chief example can be seen in Finland’s experiment with universal basic income (UBI) — a trial run far smaller in scale and less ambitious than is widely portrayed in English-speaking headlines.

Today, after being rocked as much as the rest of the world by COVID-19, Finland is once again attracting attention for what some decry as a utopian proposal: a radical shortening of working hours. But this time, the proposal is neither exceptional nor out of reach.

The country’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, (from the Social Democratic Party, SDP) has long been a proponent of a national six-hour workday. On August 24, after she had been officially elected as the SDP’s chair, she took the opportunity to announce to party members that the country needs “a clear vision and concrete steps as to how Finland can proceed towards shorter working hours and Finnish employees towards better working life.”