The Government of Iceland has approved a legislative reform that will force companies to demonstrate that they do not discriminate against women with lower salaries in the same job. The rule will come into force in 2020 and the Executive sets the goal of eradicating the gender gap in 2022. The law will also affect the salary difference that occurs in the country by ethnicity or nationality.
Iceland is at the forefront in the fight for equality between men and women. And it is due to legislative initiatives such as the one just approved by the Government. Bjarni Benediktsson’s cabinet has introduced a comprehensive law in Parliament to end wage discrimination based on sex, ethnicity or nationality. Companies with more than 25 employees will have to certify in their annual accounts to the Administration that their workers are paid the same while performing the same position.
The Executive has set itself the goal of eliminating the salary gap in 2022. The Minister for Equality and Foreign Affairs, Thorsteinn Viglundsson, has stated that the measures adopted in recent years to solve this problem, such as “mandatory paternity leave or the 40% quota in the boards of directors”.
Viglundsson has acknowledged that the initiative will burden the country’s companies with more bureaucracy, “but it is a necessary step to fight against injustice,” he told the British newspaper The Independent.
According to the World Economic Forum, Icelandic women earn between 14% and 18% less than men in the same job. Despite the difference, Iceland has led the ranking with the lowest gender inequality in terms of wages in the last eight years.
Although the opposition has criticized the measure, it has been well received by public opinion, which is used to defending feminist positions. In 1975, 90% of women in the country supported a general strike in which they demanded gender equality in social rights.
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