How do government employers exercise power in highly voluntarist bargaining models? In this article, we analyse the potential power of public employers in Sweden, Denmark and Norway and examine how they use this potential. We call attention to three areas in which government employers exercise power: direct political intervention, attempts to decentralize wage bargaining and control of wage movements. We argue that government employers in the three countries have similar institutional capacities for power, but their ways of exercising power vary according to political norms and practice.