Gender Wage Gap Decreases Slightly, Unevenly

The gender wage gap decreased slightly between 2013 and 2014, albeit unevenly across sectors. The financial sector showed the widest gap of all, at about 37%.

According to data compiled by Statistics Iceland, the general gender wage gap in Iceland went from 19.9% in 2013 to 18.3% last year. This is slightly higher than the average in the EU and the US.

The distribution across sectors showed some stark contrasts. On the general labour market, the gap is still at 19.9%, while for government workers, it was at 13.2%. Within this sector, the gap in the national government was at 13.2% but for municipalities, only 6.7% – despite the municipal workforce being about 75% comprised of women.

In the private sector, the greatest gender wage gap could be found in the finance and insurance sector, where it was at 37.5%. The greatest wage equity could be found in the health care and social work field, which is at 7.4%.

Statistics Iceland emphasised in its report that this is uncorrected data; it did not take into account other aspects that can influence wage differences, such as education, age, work experience and other factors.