We are going to eliminate the unexplained pay gap

The Municipality of Hafnarfjörður has been participating in a pilot project on financialThe project is a pilot scheme run by the Ministry of Finance and Welfare to implement the equal pay standard. Its aim is to eliminate unexplained pay differences and fulfil employers' legal obligation to pay women and men equal pay, ensuring they receive the same terms and conditions for the same or work of equal value.

Initially, a project manager was appointed to handle the planning for the implementation, but after various obstacles had been removed, a steering group, the so-called equal pay council, began its work in early 2016. „The implementation largely consists of formalising the procedures that have been in place until now. There are no major overhauls involved, but this work has led to various improvement projects,“ says Andri Ómarsson, project manager at Hafnarfjörður Municipality. During this period, the City of Hafnarfjörður has formulated a pay policy, updated its equality plan and commissioned an analysis of men's and women's pay. According to the standard, the scope of the system must include all staff, but the City of Hafnarfjörður typically employs around 1,800 staff across 70 locations. „As the City of Hafnarfjörður is a large employer, various projects become enormous and time-consuming. Education, for example, is one factor that affects pay, and so it was considered important to record the staff's education. I think it took us about three months to go through the filing cabinets and record everyone's education in the HR system. But that means we can calculate for the effects of education and other factors in an equal pay audit to find the pay gap that is solely attributable to gender,“ says Andri. A Quality Manager was hired by the City of Hafnarfjörður at the beginning of the year, who is bringing a strong contribution to this extensive project, among other things.

Initial findings from the equal pay review indicate that everything is on the right track, and the City of Hafnarfjörður's objectives in this area are ambitious. Processes are being reviewed, jobs defined and categorised, and deviations addressed with the aim of eliminating unexplained pay disparities. „Once we believe we have implemented the standard satisfactorily, we will approach a certification body to confirm that we are working in accordance with the standard's requirements and to obtain the Ministry of Welfare's Equal Pay Mark,“ Andri concludes.

^{An interview with Andri Ómarsson, project manager for the City of Hafnarfjörður, was published in Fréttatíminn on Saturday, 11th March.}