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Income distribution seems to go hand in hand with generalised trust. The more unequal the society, the lower its levels of generalized trust. The universal welfare state gives rise to trust, but trust is also a necessary condition for the rise of the universal welfare state. In this article, I argue that the rise of Swedish equality boosted trust levels before the rise of the universal welfare state in the 1950s. The distribution of wealth became more equal and the share of top-income earners declined. The most outstanding piece of evidence of levelling income distribution, however, is found in the wage structure: wage differentials declined within and between manufacturing workers and agricultural workers. Wage convergence stemmed from the particular configurations of the Swedish labour market: centralised agreements, cooperation, and a solidaristic wage policy.

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