Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1996, published 85th ILC session (1997)

1. The Committee notes the findings of the 1993-94 study, undertaken in the context of the Four-Year Plan of Action on Gender Equality, which confirmed other comparable recent studies into wage differentials between men and women, namely that a considerable difference between men's and women's wages exists, whether net day-time wages (women receive 78 per cent), day-time wages plus supplements (women receive 70 per cent) or parity wages (women receive 68 per cent of men's wages). According to the study, educational qualifications lead to higher wages for both women and men, but to greater increases for men. While there is no difference between the wages of women and men who are without any educational qualification above basic compulsory schooling, there is a considerable difference where senior school or university education is taken into account. This trend is also noted in the National Report to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) where it is stated that the hourly wages paid to women as a percentage of those paid to men have decreased from 88.1 per cent in 1980 to 83.1 per cent in 1993; in March 1994, women civil servants earned 75 per cent of the basic pay of men civil servants, but only 65 per cent of the total pay of men. Some of the factors identified for this loss of parity include: women in part-time posts; in lower income and lower status jobs; men still regarded as "breadwinners" of the family.

2. The report indicates that, in the face of these statistics, another initiative was undertaken by the Minister of Social Affairs: on assessment of occupations as a means of reducing the sex-based wage gap. Completed in early 1996, it recommended that an experimental project be launched to do occupational assessments using gender-neutral job ranking in a small number of state, private and local government bodies, with specific attention being paid to so-called "traditional" men's and women's jobs. The Committee welcomes this use of job evaluation, as proposed in Article 3 of the Convention, as a means of reducing sex-based inequalities in remuneration and looks forward with interest to receiving information about the acceptance of this recommendation as well as the project's results when available.

3. The Committee notes with interest that women's remuneration and gender-based wage differentials receive considerable attention in Icelandic society, as evidenced by the political debate on them prior to the recent general elections, the National Report to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) and the three-yearly Gender Equality Conference organized by the Equal Status Council. Noting the description of the 1993 Conference (to which members of the public were invited as well as delegates from concerned organizations and political parties), the Committee requests the Government, in its next report, to provide information about the 1996 Conference which will have wages as one of its major concerns.