Have More Sex? Workers Should Get Paid Sex Breaks For Their Health, Swedish Lawmaker Argues

A Swedish city councillor’s proposal to allow Swedes a one-hour paid break from work to go home and have sex with their partners in an effort to boost people’s relationships is taking the internet by storm. Per-Erik Muskos, a 42-year-old city councillor for the town of Övertorneå, argued that his proposal is aimed at “having better relationships," which he backed up with science.

"There are studies that show sex is healthy," Muskos told Agence France-Presse, while adding that he "saw no reason" why the motion wouldn't pass.

Noting that there were no means of verifying whether the employees used their paid break on things other than spending time with their partners, Muskos said employers need to trust their employees. "You can't guarantee that a worker doesn't go out for a walk instead," Muskos said according to AFP.

Though Muskos’ unconventional proposals may raise some eyebrows, his suggestion is backed up by research. A senior lecturer in psychology at Nottingham Trent University in the United Kingdom recently said allowing masturbation at work could boost productivity. And a 2013 discussion paper published by the Institute for the Study of Labor, an economic research institution in Germany, found that people who had sex four or more times a week earned more than their counterparts who didn’t.

"People need to love and be loved (sexually and non-sexually) by others. In the absence of these elements, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and depression that could affect their working life," Nick Drydakis, the study's author and an economics lecturer at Angila Ruskin University in Cambridge, England, explained to CBS News.

Workplace rules and culture vary around the world. In France, for instance, a recent change in rules has allowed the country’s workforce to ignore after-work emails until the next day.