The Icelandic government is the first in the world to introduce a law requiring equal pay between men and women. They are the best, yet they are not satisfied.
If a man and a woman do the same job, within the same company, they must receive the same salary. For the first time, the principle of "equal pay" has been enshrined in law in a nation. The pioneer on the subject of rights has been Iceland: the same country that, from 30 November, entrusted its government to Katrin Jakobsdottir, a forty-year-old environmentalist backed by a red-green coalition.
The regulation came into force on 1 January, having been approved in June 2017 with the support of the governing majority of then prime minister Bjarni Benediktsson. From now on, all companies — both private and public — that employ more than 25 employees will be required to obtain a specific "equal pay certificate". And should any inequalities persist, the legislation provides for a system of sanctions against employers.
The process will therefore begin with large and medium-sized companies, but the Icelandic government aims to achieve equal pay across all companies operating on the territory of the Scandinavian island by 2020. The law, moreover, is not limited to penalising gender discrimination, but also cites discrimination based on ethnic and religious origin, as well as that linked to sexual orientation, age or disability. "I think employers will now be forced to understand that what we are talking about is a widespread problem, one that must be addressed with new methods," said Aradottir Pind, of the Icelandic Women's Rights Association, as reported by the international press.
"We want everyone to care about the problem. We want those who manage human resources in companies to introduce new rules," Benediktsson had said at the time of the debate on the law. For its part, Iceland has held first place for nine years in the ranking of the most virtuous nations on gender equality, published each year by the World Economic Forum. Despite this, a gap of 16.1 per cent still exists today between the monthly salaries received by men and women.
