Iceland Will Be The First Country To Require Equal Pay For Women And Minorities
Iceland Will Be The First Country To Require Equal Pay For Women And Minorities
On International Women's Day, Iceland introduced legislation that will require employers with 25 or more employees to prove they offer equal pay, making them the first country ever to do so. Find out more here!
On International Women's Day, Iceland introduced legislation that will require employers with 25 or more employees to prove they offer equal pay, making them the first country ever to do so. Find out more here!
Iceland is well established as the best country on Earth for gender equality, but they still have a 14-18% wage gap on average between men and women. To protest this, last October, Icelandic women left work at 2:38 pm, 14% early, because if they are paid 14% less than men, they are working for free 14% of the time, or after 2:38 pm. Now, Iceland has decided to make a radical change and demand that its employers offer equal pay for equal work. According to Icelandic Equality and Social Affairs Minister Thorsteinn Viglundsson:
We need to make sure that men and women enjoy equal opportunity in the workplace. It is our responsibility to take every measure to achieve that. You have to dare to take new steps, to be bold in the fight against injustice.
Thorsteinn Viglundsson
NBC News, March 8, 2017
The new legislation still has to be approved, but both government and opposition lawmakers are expected to do so. And although, the legislation is not expected to be implemented until 2020, Iceland's goal is to eradicate gender inequality in wages by 2022. While some have argued that the law is not necessary because they pay gap is already closing in Iceland and it just imposes unnecessary bureaucracy on businesses, Viglundsson notes that it is important to take big steps to ensure that the pay gap is completely erased and that it's only about as big a deal to companies as getting their taxes done.
It is a burden to put on companies to have to comply with a law like this. But we put such burdens on companies all the time when it comes to auditing your annual accounts or turning in your tax report.
Thorsteinn Viglundsson
NBC News, March 8, 2017
But now, what we want to know is...
Do you think that businesses should be legally required to pay men and women equally for equal work?
Do you think that businesses should be legally required to pay men and women equally for equal work?