Elle magazine wins the feminist fail this week for its piece headlined, “Iceland Just Made It Illegal To Pay Men More Than Women.”
The first sentence of the article states: “As of 1 January, it is illegal to pay men more than women in Iceland.”
In fact, paying women less for the same work has been illegal for decades, since 1961. The new legislation is an implementation measure, requiring some companies to get a certification that they are paying women and men equally. That’s a big difference.
Let’s remember that in the U.S., in 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, making sex-based discrimination in pay illegal. Equal pay is the law in the U.S. as well.