Fake news are spreading around on this subject so please check in to make sure you stay informed.
I must admit that when the news came about I was confused. I was reading a few mainstream media outlets headlines such as The Independent, who were saying "Iceland makes it illegal to pay men more than women" or The Guardian's "Once more, Iceland has shown it is the best place in the world to be female". The first question that popped into my mind while reading the headlines was "but where in the West is it legal to pay men more than women?". Anti-discrimination laws for this matter are everywhere, so why was this something new?
Then I did some digging and discovered that in Iceland equal pay for equal work has been granted by law since 1961. So again, the leftist mainstream media got overexcited and printed some fake news on this subject.
So what is this new law about then?
Well, companies in Iceland, both private and public, must now demonstrate that they pay men and women fairly without gender discrimination. The law applies to companies with more than 25 employees.
Basically, this new law transfers the burden from the employee who had to prove that he/she has been discriminated against to companies who now must prove that their pay practices are fair.
That's it! Really, that's it.
Obviously, this comes in the context of the neverending story of gender wage gap which in Iceland is reportedly at around 16%. Speaking of gender wage gap though, I must say that in my opinion this is one of the biggest myths that goes around the world nowadays. Of course, I'm not denying that men earn more money than women pretty much anywhere in the world, but the leftist world and feminist organizations claim that the reason behind this gap is discrimination and an oppressive patriarchal culture.
But how many of these people who support this myth have ever wondered why then there still are female CEOs, female doctors, female lawyers, female programmers, etc? If the patriarchy really existed in the West, shouldn't all these women be doing something else?
The main reason why this gap exists is simply the career choices men and women make. Men are more likely to choose tough jobs that tend to be paid more and work more extra hours than women. I have never seen a feminist discussing about career options by the way.
Also, this whole mentality comes from the marxist theories of oppressor vs oppressed and equality of outcome. The only way men and women can actually earn the exact same amount of money is through a state-driven economy, where merit based income is abolished. In other words, a communist dictatorship, which my country, Romania, has suffered from for 45 years. Personally, I don't want to go back there.
That's it for today. Until next time...
Audaces fortuna iuvat!
Mihai