Pay differences between the sexes constitute one of the biggest obstacles to achieving gender equality in the Nordic countries. Nordic Information onGender (NIKK) has produced this report to highlight and compare the Nordic countries’ strategies, policies and law in the area of equal pay.
This report is based on interviews and documentation provided by researchers, experts and officials working in government agencies and ministries. In the Nordic countries, the average gender pay gap is 14.3 per cent according to Eurostat statistics from 2017. A large part of this pay gap is due to a gendersegregated labour market in which men and women work in different industries and occupations and in different positions. But even in the standard weighted statistics on wages and salaries, where corrections have been made for factorsthat affect pay such as occupation, industry, education and age, gender-based pay differences persist.