October 24, 2022
Heiða Björg Hilmisdóttir, city councilor, chairwoman of the Association of Icelandic Municipalities, vice chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party, writes:
Today marks 47 years since Women's Day, when women walked off the job and demanded equal pay. Women's Day demonstrated the power of women's solidarity in action. Women's solidarity is an amazing phenomenon that has been a driving force behind important social reforms in favor of equality and human rights. Nevertheless, women in this country still experience wage inequality, which can be largely attributed to the gendered labor market and the underestimation of the value of women's work.
How are you?
According to Statistics Iceland's wage survey, the unadjusted gender pay gap was 14.8% in the general labor market, 14.0% among government employees, and 7.4% among local government employees in 2019. It is intolerable that this situation exists almost 70 years after equal pay was legalized in this country.
Value of work
Attention needs to be focused on job valuation. Pay equity will not be achieved unless pay is based on a holistic job valuation that considers factors such as responsibility for people, emotional stress, work environment, and empathy as well as human resource management and financial responsibility. While pay equity at the municipal level has not been achieved, municipalities stand out with a pay gap that is almost half that of other markets.
Local government route
The special position of the municipalities undoubtedly has various explanations. One of them is undoubtedly that since the turn of the century, the municipalities have focused on the value assessment of jobs and used a job evaluation system to evaluate jobs. This means that the assessment of the value of jobs is based on uniform criteria that are sought to be gender-neutral. The job evaluation system only covers the basic salary of jobs and the work to be done to be done in terms of additional pay. In these cases, there is an increased emphasis on the value assessment of jobs and there is therefore every reason to look at the experience of the municipalities in using a job evaluation system in that process.
Wage inequality must be eradicated because this social and economic reality for women affects their quality of life and economic status throughout their lives. This will not be resolved until full equality is achieved.
Happy birthday!
