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EVENTS
Iceland gets closer to its goal of eradicating the gender pay gap by 2022!
Iceland, the country ranked as the most gender-equal country in the world (by the World Economic Forum) takes a huge step forward in its quest to eradicate the gender pay gap by 2022, by becoming the first country in the world to make it illegal for employers to pay male workers more for doing the same work as women.
The bill that was passed last spring but took effect on New Year’s Day requires companies and government agencies that employ a minimum of 25 people to obtain government certification of their equal pay policies, proving that men and women are paid equally. Failing to do so will mean that companies will face fines.
Seeing as nearly 50% of Iceland’s parliament are women the legislation has been strongly backed by both of Iceland’s centre-right government as well as the opposition. This also includes the thousands of women who left work at 2:38 pm in October last year across Iceland to demonstrate outside of parliament against the gender pay gap. After it was calculated that women earned 14 to 18 percent less than their male counterparts, this meant that in an eight hour day women were working without pay from 2:38 pm.
Let’s hope other nations take a leaf out of Iceland’s book and start doing the same.
