Iceland announces equal pay legislation

Iceland announces equal pay legislation

Iceland is to become the first country in the world to force employers to prove that they pay men and women equally, under new legislation announced by the government.

According to the plans, announced on International Women’s Day (March 8), all firms with more than 25 staff will be required to obtain certification of pay equality. The law will apply to both public- and private-sector employers.

Thorsteinn Viglundsson, Iceland’s minister for social affairs and equality, commented that: “We want to break down the last of the gender barriers in the workplace. History has shown that if you want progress, you need to enforce it.”

Currently, women in Iceland earn 14% to 18% less than men. The government has pledged to close this gap by 2022.

The country, which has a small population of around 330,000, has been consistently ranked as one of the best countries in the world for gender equality by the World Economic Forum.

The role of legislation in tackling the gender pay gap is the subject of an IZA World of Labor article by Solomon Polachek. He writes that equal pay policies based on wage outcomes have had little effect on the pay gap, but that “economic policies that promote even greater lifetime work for women can successfully reduce the gender wage gap further.”