Iceland’s gift to women, an equal pay law

In the first step of its kind, and in concurrence with the International Women’s Day, Iceland announced that it will apply an equal pay law on all private and public sector companies across the nation in a pledge to close wage gap by the year 2022. The Icelandic government reasserted that it will be submitting a draft legislation to the Parliament this moth requiring all companies with more than 25 employees to prove they pay equally for employees for the same work, regardless of the color, race and gender. The projected law will come into effect early next year. Commenting on the above move, Iceland’s social affairs and equality minister, Thorsteinn Viglundsson disclosed that companies rejected the law at all levels, yet they called it a matter of necessity to close the gender gap at the workplace. “Equality is a fundamental human right,” said Viglundsson. It should be noted, that Iceland imposes a 40% women representation quota at the level of boards of directors on companies with more than 50 employees. This Nordic country is on top of world countries for gender equality according to the World Economic Forum Wage Gap Index. Nevertheless, Icelandic women still earn 14% to 18% less than men. (The Huffington post Canada 8 March 2017) 

 

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