Iceland is not waiting for the gender pay
gap to fix itself.
Starting January 1, 2018, it is now
illegal for employers to pay women less than men. In Iceland, both public and
private employers with 25 employees or more will need obtain government
certification of equal pay policies. Organizations that fail to obtain the
certification will face fines.
The country, according to the 2017 Global
Gender Gap Report, already has the most gender equity of any country. The
report examines the gender gap across four dimensions: economic participation
and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political
empowerment.
The United States ranks 49th, just ahead
of Kazakhstan but behind Uganda.
American women earn about 83% of what men
earn in 2015. The gap has been narrowing for several decades — but very slowly.
If the gender pay gaps narrows at the same rate as between 2001 and the
present, women will not achieve pay equity until 2119.
Iceland wanted to accelerate the process.
“We have had legislation saying that pay should be equal for men and women for
decades now but we still have a pay gap,” Dagny Osk Aradottir Pind, a
board member of the Icelandic Women’s Rights Association, told Al
Jazeera.
The legislation was supported by
Iceland’s center-right ruling party and the opposition. A notable factor in Iceland’s
decision: almost 50 percent of Iceland’s parliament is female. Iceland ranks
first in “political empowerment” in the Global Gender Gap Report.
The United States ranks 96th in political
empowerment of women, behind Nepal, Algeria and Pakistan. Women make up just 19
percent of Congress.
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Ressources
about Gender Equality:
Clayman Institute
for Gender Research
