At 14:55 Icelandic women are encouraged to leave their work to protest against the gender pay gap, sexual harassment and other forms of gender based discrimination. At 15:30 a mass meeting will be held at Arnarhóll hill. Reykjavík City has asked people to expect traffic delays in the city center as the streets around Arnarhóll will be closed to traffic. People should also expect traffic to move slowly on other nearby streets.
#MeToo plays an important role in this year's protests. According to a statement from the event organizers stamping out any form of harassment is crucial:
In recent months, stories of harassment, violence and injustice women suffer in the workplace have been shared on social media under the hashtag #MeToo. These stories have made it clear that our fight for gender equality in the workplace cannot only be about equal pay, but must also be about safety in the workplace.
We will no longer tolerate this harassment, violence and injustice! Women should be safe at work and safe at home. The focus now is to put pressure on companies and the government to change how they deal with misogyny, harassment and violence in the workplace and to make sure all employers have regulations and protocol for when incidents occur.
The first Women's Strike was organized on this day in 1975. The last strike was held in 2016. The time 14:55 for this year's strike is picked based on figures Statistics Iceland, which show that the average wages of women in Iceland are only 74% of the average wages of men. The organizers of the Women's Strike argue that women are therefore paid 26% less on average than men. According to this, they argue, women have earned their wages after only 5 hours and 55 minutes, in an average workday of 8 hours. This means that, if the workday begins at 9 a.m. and finishes at 5 p.m, women stop being paid for their work at 2:55 p.m.
The difference in men's and women's wages is partially explained by various factors, like choice of employment and time spent in the labor market, for example due to women spending more time outside the labor market to raise children. When these factors are taken into consideration we are left with the adjusted gender pay gap, which captures the difference in men's and women's wages which is not explained by anything other than the person's wages. According to Statistics Iceland this adjusted pay gap has been shrinking in recent years, although it still remains a very significant 4.5%.
Read more: Gender pay gap continues to shrink in Iceland: Only 4.5%, decreased by third since 2008
At 14:55 Icelandic women are encouraged to leave their work to protest against the gender pay gap, sexual harassment and other forms of gender based discrimination. At 15:30 a mass meeting will be held at Arnarhóll hill. Reykjavík City has asked people to expect traffic delays in the city center as the streets around Arnarhóll will be closed to traffic. People should also expect traffic to move slowly on other nearby streets.
#MeToo plays an important role in this year's protests. According to a statement from the event organizers stamping out any form of harassment is crucial:
In recent months, stories of harassment, violence and injustice women suffer in the workplace have been shared on social media under the hashtag #MeToo. These stories have made it clear that our fight for gender equality in the workplace cannot only be about equal pay, but must also be about safety in the workplace.
We will no longer tolerate this harassment, violence and injustice! Women should be safe at work and safe at home. The focus now is to put pressure on companies and the government to change how they deal with misogyny, harassment and violence in the workplace and to make sure all employers have regulations and protocol for when incidents occur.
The first Women's Strike was organized on this day in 1975. The last strike was held in 2016. The time 14:55 for this year's strike is picked based on figures Statistics Iceland, which show that the average wages of women in Iceland are only 74% of the average wages of men. The organizers of the Women's Strike argue that women are therefore paid 26% less on average than men. According to this, they argue, women have earned their wages after only 5 hours and 55 minutes, in an average workday of 8 hours. This means that, if the workday begins at 9 a.m. and finishes at 5 p.m, women stop being paid for their work at 2:55 p.m.
The difference in men's and women's wages is partially explained by various factors, like choice of employment and time spent in the labor market, for example due to women spending more time outside the labor market to raise children. When these factors are taken into consideration we are left with the adjusted gender pay gap, which captures the difference in men's and women's wages which is not explained by anything other than the person's wages. According to Statistics Iceland this adjusted pay gap has been shrinking in recent years, although it still remains a very significant 4.5%.
Read more: Gender pay gap continues to shrink in Iceland: Only 4.5%, decreased by third since 2008
