Gender Wage Gap Increases In Financial Institutions

As the economy improved, the gender wage gap actually increased within Iceland’s financial institutions.

Vísir reports that a survey of men’s and women’s salaries within Icelandic finance companies showed the gender wage gap grew between 2013 and 2016.

In fact, in 34 of 38 companies, men had considerably higher salaries than women, with a wage difference on average of about 12.9%. While the gender wage gap exists in many sectors of Icelandic business, it has actually increased within finance companies during this three-year period.

In 2010, the gender wage gap in this sector was at 11.9%, increasing to 12.1% in 2013. As such, the gap is demonstrably increasing within Icelandic financial institutions.

Kristín Ástgeirsdóttir, the managing director of the Centre for Gender Equality, told reporters that this demonstrates that wage discrimination has actually increased as the economy has improved.

“This is very peculiar,” she said. “The experience and the discussion after 2007 should have taught us to get more women into these institutions, and not repeat the same nonsense.”