Iceland’s government celebrated International Women’s Day on Wednesday by announcing that it will require companies with more than 25 employees to “gain a certificate demonstrating pay equality,” according to The Independent. This legislation will apparently be implemented by 2020, and has bipartisan (!!!) support—the most surprising thing I’ve heard about women’s rights in a minute.
Iceland is the first country in the world to make employers prove they offer equal pay: https://t.co/QyrtkzMVJu pic.twitter.com/XYKsXWMVHy
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 9, 2017
In the announcement by Iceland’s Equality and Social Affairs Minister Thorsteinn Viglundsson, the focus was mainly on the disparity in pay between men and women. While Iceland is consistently rated as being the most equal relative to other nations in terms of a gendered pay gap, it is by no means completely equal.
Hopefully the legislation will not simply address the difference in pay between men and women-identifying persons, but will also take up an intersectional lens and examine and eradicate the differences in pay experienced by women of color, disabled women and other marginalized individuals as well.
It’s unclear what this “certificate” will signify exactly or what criteria it will be based on, but hopefully the government of Iceland has a systematic and comprehensive plan for enacting this legislation. That way, other nations could easily follow suit. Formal measures such as these aren’t the only ways in which we should be seeking justice, but they are undoubtedly important ones.