Iceland Women Slam Pay Gap, Leave Work Early

Gender pay gap is a reality and women are being discriminated against by getting paid less than men for doing the same amount of work. While other countries are taking it a bit slow, women in Iceland went ahead and put up a protest by working exactly 14% less than men, which is how much they are paid less.

As a way of rebellion, on Monday, thousands of women in Iceland left work at 2.38 pm, after which their work isn’t paid for in general. Women employees in Iceland make about 14% to 18% less than men even though the country tops in terms of gender equality.

The gap is what women’s organisations and unions term as efficient work gone unpaid after 2.38 pm.

This isn’t the first time Icelandic women are standing up to workplace discrimination. In 1975, they took a day off from work and household responsibilities to call for their significance in society. A record 90% of the women took part in the protest. However, nothing much came out of it as women at that time lacked political power.

Then in 2005, women left work at 2.08 pm when their work was going unpaid after that time. 2008 called for a protest after 2.25 pm and the latest one happened in this week.

“No one puts up with waiting 50 years to reach a goal,” Gylfi Arnbjörnsson, president of the Icelandic Confederation of Labor, told the country's official national broadcaster RÚV. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a gender pay gap or any other pay gap. It’s just unacceptable to say we’ll correct this in 50 years. That’s a lifetime.”

It has been reported that it will take about 52 years to completely close the gender pay gap and bring utmost equality between men and women.

While this Nordic country still has a realist