Iceland's New Law Requires Women Are Paid Equally to Men

An Iceland law requiring companies to pay men and women equally went into effect Jan. 1. 

Penalties will be in place for companies that can’t show they pay men and women equally. Iceland already had the world’s smallest gender wage gap for the last nine years, according to the World Economic Forum.

The country's government has committed to closing the gender pay gap completely by 2022 and has said it will provide grants to support international gender equality. Forty-five percent of Iceland’s parliamentarians are women.

“The legislation is basically a mechanism that companies and organizations … [can use to] evaluate every job that’s being done, and then they get a certification after they confirm the process if they are paying men and women equally,” Icelandic Women’s Rights Association board member Dagny Osk Aradottir Pind told Al Jazeera.

Other countries in Europe also have taken steps toward equal pay for women, including a requirement to report wages by gender.

The U.S. is 49th in gender wage equality and ranks behind some developing countries such as Botswana and Bangladesh, Time reported. 

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