Iceland Legislated Equal Pay for Women as a First in the World

So why is Australia still unequal?  It seems that the financial situation of women has been by design to keep women in a dependent situations and reflects discrimination.  I believe it is also conscious or unconscious punishment for women seeking independence by going to work and owning equality. 

I was trained as an Economist in the 1990’s and this was an issue then.  It is still an issue in Australia which says a great deal about unenlightened leaders and holding women down to weaken their ability to gain self reliance.

This is an article by the Guardian about the first country in the world who has legalised equal pay.  All I can say is FINALLY. Note the title has the order as women and men.  Notice when you read always women are second. This is the psychological ordering of status.

 

Iceland to enshrine equal pay for women and men in law

Legislation will be first in world to require private companies and government agencies to prove pay is fair or face fines

Agence France-Presse

 
Reykjavík.
Iceland ranks first on the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap Index. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Iceland’s parliament has presented a bill that would require public and private businesses to prove they offer equal pay to employees, in what would be the first such requirement in the world.

The bill entails that companies and institutions of a certain size, 25 or more employees, undertake a certification of their equal-pay programmes, Thorsteinn Viglundsson, minister of social affairs and equality, said.

But the new law aims to close the wage gap between men and women in the island nation of more than 323,000 people, Viglundsson said.

It has the support of both Iceland’s centre-right coalition government as well as the opposition – and nearly 50% of the lawmakers in parliament are women.

The law would take effect from January.

“The gender pay gap is unfortunately a fact in the Icelandic labour market and it’s time take radical measures; we have the knowledge and the processes to eliminate it,” Viglundsson said.

UK’s gender pay rankings will put discrimination under spotlight

The law would require private companies and government agencies to go through audits and receive certification that equal pay is provided, or they could face fines.

“In regard to annual financial statements, there are fines if documents are not delivered, and I can see the same apply if an equal-pay certification has not been implemented, since it will be an obligation,” Viglundsson said.

He said the law was “burdensome”, setting new obligations on the Scandinavian country’s economy and businesses, but added: “The benefits are at the same time obvious.”

Managers and companies that have undertaken the procedure have been “positive”, as they have found it “beneficial to go systematically through pay decisions in their sections”, Viglundsson said.

Iceland’s economy is basking in the glow of soaring tourism and a thriving fisheries sector, with growth reaching 11% in the first quarter of this year, after full-year growth of 7.2% in 2016.

Mohandas Gandhi

“If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.”

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