Labor laws and regulations do not specifically prohibit discrimination with respect to employment on the basis of race, color, religion, political opinion, national origin, citizenship, social origin, disability, language, sexual orientation and/or gender identity, and HIV-positive status or other communicable diseases. Nevertheless, the constitution and other laws prohibit such discrimination in general and provide for fines determined by the courts for violations. The government effectively enforced the law.
Despite laws requiring equal pay for equal work, a pay gap existed between men and women. According to a salary survey of its members conducted by the country’s largest labor union, the VR, and published in July, the gender-based pay gap amounted to 11.3 percent after taking into consideration age, length of employment, profession, job sector, education, number of employees supervised, number of hours worked, and shift work.
According to a salary survey of their members conducted for the Union of Public Servants and the Reykjavik City Municipal Employees Association and published in September, the gender pay gap amounted to 11.8 and 6.0 percent among the unions’ membership, respectively, after taking into consideration age, working hours, length of employment, type of profession, education, shift differential, and type of sector.
Anecdotal evidence suggested some employers might without reason limit their hiring to native Icelandic-speaking individuals. ECRI reported that foreign construction workers, even skilled ones, were usually hired as unskilled workers at the collectively negotiated minimum wage.
Disability rights advocates asserted that persons with disabilities had a more difficult time finding jobs due to prejudice and because fewer job opportunities, especially part-time, were available for persons with disabilities. The positions that persons with disabilities were able to find were usually low-paying, required only a low level of education or skills, and offered limited opportunities for advancement.