Many women in Iceland have recently started to see more money in their paychecks.
Earlier this year, the European nation’s new Equal Pay Standard began requiring companies that employ 25 people or more to demonstrate to the government that they are paying men and women the same amount for doing the same jobs. Failure to comply with the law could result in daily fines.
In recent years, women in Iceland have earned roughly 14 to 20 percent less than men who do the same work, according to government figures. To protest the pay gap, thousands of women walked out of their jobs one day in 2016 hours before the workday ended.
The new law is the first of its kind in the world. Experts hope that it prompts other nations, including the United States, to address their gender pay gaps. In the U.S., women earn—on average—83 cents for every dollar that men earn.
Iceland’s law, gender scholar Virginie Le Masson told reporters, “can help change attitudes to women in business as well as in politics, and inspire other countries to do the same.”