The country ranked as the best in the world in terms of gender equality by the World Economic Forum is Iceland.

Commenting on the implications of the UK following Iceland’s lead, Dr Sybille Steiner, partner solicitor at law firm Irwin Mitchell told Recruiter: “In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful for a man and a woman to be paid differently for the same role. However, it does not require businesses to prove they pay all employees the same.

“If the law in Iceland were to come into force in the UK, recruiters would need to be mindful in the negotiation of salaries, as pay would need to remain the same in order to not breach the law.”

Midnight last night marked the deadline for UK firms with more than 250 staff to publish data on the average difference in pay between male and female employees.

The UK government also announced the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee is to question campaigners and companies as part of its inquiry into the gender pay gap, with a session on 17 April focusing on issues around compliance as well as what is being done to tackle the gap.

Today’s latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show 78% of larger companies pay men more than women. Of the 10,000 companies publishing data, 14% reported paying women more than men with 8% disclosing no pay gap at all.

As the world leader in gender pay equality, in January the Icelandic government introduced a new law requiring firms with 25 or more staff to have a certificate showing they pay everyone in the same roles equally – no matter what their gender, sexuality or ethnicity. Iceland also previously introduced a quota meaning companies with more than 50 employees have to have a minimum of 40% of women on their boards.

Phillippa Canavan, senior associate at law firm Squire Patton Boggs, told Recruiter any rule requiring firms with 25 or more staff to have a certificate proving equal pay could prove burdensome.

“If this rule were to come into effect, it would essentially mean applying the same time-consuming information gathering and calculations ‎required by the Gender Pay Gap rules, but this time to an agency's employees and workers of different sexual orientation and ethnicities; this could easily be a full-time job in itself, so more administrative costs for agencies!

“If such a law were proposed in the UK, agencies should participate in the government consultations pushing back on the need for this law to extend to agency workers too due to the substantial administrative burden this creates.”

Meanwhile Jacqueline McDermott, consultant solicitor at law firm Keystone Law, told Recruiter agencies should adopt a consultative approach with clients to help them navigate any new laws particularly if the UK were to introduce a similar quota system to Iceland.

“If there is a law saying you’ve got to have 40% women, would recruiters be obliged to say ‘what’s your gender gap on your board?’ or ‘what’s your gender make up?’. And would they be entitled to provide just women’s CVs and comply with any provisions on recruiters?

“That’s the difficulty at the moment in the UK because you can’t have quotas. You can’t say we’re going to have 40% women on the board and ignore all of the qualified men – we’re just going to promote women. That currently is unlawful.”

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