Swedish Workers Just Got Bad News About Their Sex Lives

Finding the right work-life balance is always a challenge. But in Overtornea, Sweden, residents are going to have to have sex on their own time, just like everywhere else. The New York Times reports a 31-member town council on Monday voted down a local pol's proposal to grant the municipality's 550 workers "subsidized sex"—in other words, one hour of paid leave each workweek in which they could scurry home to get it on.

Proponents of Per-Erik Muskos' plan said it could help boost the town's birth rate, as well as pull marriages out of ruts. The BBC reports the town is home to roughly 4,500, and the population is aging. Per the proposal, the sex hour would have replaced an already-permitted "fitness" hour, and the council ruled that if sex were to be subsidized, why not gardening or cleaning? "The break should be used for a walk or going to a gym," one council member says. Muskos isn't surprised by the decision, but he's still "disappointed." (Half of this country's married couples aren't having sex.)