International Equal Pay Day Event

To mark the fourth International Equal Pay Day, the Permanent Delegation of Iceland to the OECD and the OECD, co-hosted an event yesterday at the OECD headquarters in Paris. This is the third year an Equal Pay Day is co-organized by Iceland and the OECD with the aim of raising awareness about one of the biggest obstacles to achieving gender equality – namely the gender pay gap. Following a proposal by Iceland, the International Equal Pay Day on 18 September was designated as a day of observance in 2019 by the United Nations General Assembly.

This year, a special focus was placed on one of the main reasons why the median full-time working woman still earns 88 cents, on average, for every euro earned by a man: the systematic undervaluation of women-dominated professions. Targeting gender-based employment segregation in an objective manner is key to improving gender equality and narrowing the gendered wage gap. It is also important to consider other compounding forms of discriminations, such as sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ethnicity, age, and migration and disability status when designing responses to the issue, as these can further exacerbate the gap when they intersect. 

Following welcome remarks delivered by Ambassador Unnur Orradóttir-Ramette, Permanent Representative of Iceland to the OECD, Mr. Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General of the OECD delivered opening remarks noting that tackling labour market segregation and eliminating pay gaps is a matter of basic human rights. The Secretary General also highlighted recent policy work and the new gender strategy of the OECD. This year´s keynote speech was delivered by the Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, in pre-recorded remarks where she noted that the remaining unadjusted gender pay gap in Iceland is largely explained by the gender division of the labour market. The government of Iceland has appointed an action group to investigate the issue further and identify tools to tackle systemic undervaluation of traditional women jobs, shifting the focus from equal pay to pay equity.

The panel discussion, moderated by Ms. Monika Queisser, Head of Social Policy Division at the OECD, brought forward different aspects of the issue, with participation of Ms. Sonja Ýr Þorbergsdóttir, Chairman of the Federation of Public Unions in Iceland, Dr. Jennifer Curtin, Professor of Politics and Policy and inaugural Director of the Public Policy Institute at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and Ms. Maartje Wagemans, Attaché at the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue in Belgium.

This year´s event was organized with the support of OECD Friends of Gender Equality Plus (FOGE+) and the group’s Co-Chairs, Madeleine Chenette, Ambassador of Canada to the OECD, and Gerard Keown, Ambassador of Ireland to the OECD and UNESCO, actively participated in the discussion. Mr. Keown noted in his closing remarks that without achieving SDG 5 on gender equality and women´s and girls´ empowerment there is no hope in reaching any of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Recording from the event can be found below.

International Equal Pay Day 2023 - YouTube