The Government of Iceland will introduce wage standards, under which all employers will be required to pay the same amount of remuneration to all employees, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and citizenship.

As the Government of Iceland has stated, the inequality in pay for men and women must be completely overcome until 2022. According to the government's plans, innovations will affect all enterprises, whose number of employees exceeds 25 people.

In October 2016, thousands of Icelandic women staged a protest against the unequal terms of payment in the country, leaving their jobs at 14:38.

Women's human rights groups have calculated that the time spent by women at work after 14:38 is not paid, compared to the payment for men.

According to Eurostat, in all EU countries men in higher positions receive higher pay than women. The greatest difference in the remuneration of managers of enterprises between men and women in Hungary (33.7%), Italy (33.5), Czechia (29.7), Slovakia (28.3), Poland (27.7), Austria (26.9), Germany (26.8) and Portugal (25.9).