The Principle of Equal Pay for Work of Equal Value. Closing the Gender Pay Gap in Iceland. "So close, yet so far"

• Main Author: Briem, Maj Britt
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Lunds universitet/Juridiska institutionen 2018
• Subjects: Equal pay for work of equal value; multiple discrimination; gender discrimination; gender pay gap; special measures; gender segregation; Equal Pay Standard; Law and Political Science; Iceland
• Online Access: http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8955279

The enunciation of the principle of equality and non-discrimination is of fundamental source in international human rights laws and EU-law and has a prominent place in the Icelandic constitution. The principles of equality and non-discrimination are based on various legal concepts that have evolved mainly in international and regional human rights or equality jurisprudence. International legal provisions guaranteeing the right to equality and non-discrimination are abundant and if discriminatory practices persist it is not for the lack of legal rules but perhaps rather for lack of implementation and effective enforcement of these rules on a domestic level. In recent years the focus seems to have shifted from the negative obligation not to discriminate, to the duty to recognize the difference between people and to take positive action to achieve substantive equality. For the last decades, some comprehensive legal responses to the gender pay gap have been made at the international, EU and Icelandic forum, mainly through promoting the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and non-discrimination. In a global legal context, the most prominent human rights instruments promoting equal pay for work of equal value are the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), and the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. Together with the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) they form the international legal and policy framework for promoting the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and non-discrimination in the world of work. However, while the principle of equal remuneration for men and women for work of equal value, often referred to as “equal pay”, has been widely endorsed, what it actually entails and how it is applied in practice has proved difficult to grasp. In Europe, the principle of equal pay for men and women for work of equal value is embodied in Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). ...