🇮🇸 Europe ·OECD member

Iceland

Iceland scores 2.20/6.0 on the OECD employment-protection strictness index.

B-READY 2025 OECD EPL
2.20 OECD EPL strictness (0–6) Above the OECD average
OECD EPL →

Iceland scores 2.20/6.0 on the OECD employment-protection index - above the OECD average of about 2.0.

#61/101 · OECD 2.20/6 · B-READY 65.2. World Bank B-READY 2025 · OECD EPL.

Employment Protection Composite

D 44/100

One composite verdict from 2 of 3 independent sources, each percentile-benchmarked against every rated country. A missing source never lowers the score -- its weight redistributes to the sources this country actually has.

ILO EPLex N/A
N/A
Statutory dismissal-protection composite
World Bank B-READY D
65.2
Labor-market regulatory quality (0-100 scale)
OECD EPL D
2.20
Employment protection legislation strictness (0-6 scale)

Benchmarked against p10-p90 of every country rated by that source. See our methodology for the exact benchmark table and weights.

0

What the Data Shows for Iceland

Europe. Covered by 2/3 tracked datasets. As an OECD member, it is included in the OECD's long-running historical EPL series. B-READY 2025 labor score: 65.2/100, moderate. The OECD EPL overall strictness index is 2.20/6.0, where higher values indicate stricter rules on individual and collective dismissal.

Dismissal process: fast, ~0.0 weeks. No 3rd-party approval required for individual dismissal.

Formal labor dispute resolution takes a moderate timeline, averaging 5.1 months. Labor disputes are rare in practice, with only 0.3% of firms surveyed by the World Bank reporting one. Employer social contributions run to a moderate 5.2% of salary on top of wages. Historically, Iceland's OECD EPL score moved from 1.40 in 2008 to 2.20 in 2019, showing the direction of reform over time. 6 peer comparisons below.

ILO EPLex
-
No data available
B-READY 2025
65.2
out of 100 · Rank #61
OECD EPL
2.20
out of 6.0 · Rank #40
B-READY 2025

Labor Regulation Quality

Regulation Quality
77.0
out of 100
Public Services
65.8
out of 100
Efficiency
52.7
out of 100
Notice Required
Yes
Severance Required
No
Weeks to Dismiss
0.0
Weeks Severance
4.9
Firms in Disputes
0.3%
Months to Resolve
5.1
Social Contributions
5.2%
3rd Party for Dismissal
Not required

Source: World Bank Business Ready 2025 Pillar scores are 0-100 (higher = better regulation quality)

OECD EPL

Historical Protection Score

Year Overall Score Visual
2008 1.40
2009 1.56
2010 1.56
2011 1.56
2012 1.56
2013 2.20
2014 2.20
2015 2.20
2016 2.20
2017 2.20
2018 2.20
2019 2.20

Scale: 0-6 (higher = more protective). Source: OECD Employment Protection Legislation database.

Compare Iceland With...

🇸🇸 South Sudan 🇹🇼 Taiwan 🇹🇴 Tonga 🇲🇬 Madagascar 🇲🇹 Malta 🇨🇫 Central African Republic

Countries with similar labor-regulation profiles

Two peer sets for Iceland on metrics that vary across the full country corpus, not regional containment. The nearest EPLex block below stays on the ILO composite; these neighborhoods use B-READY, OECD, or statutory-duration axes.

Read with this Iceland page

Understanding EPL Scores How Iceland's 2/3 source mix maps onto EPLex, OECD, and B-READY. Hiring Internationally Cross-border hiring context next to Iceland's B-READY labor score. Reading Employment Statistics How to read OECD EPL strictness next to Iceland's historical series.

Read with this Iceland roster

Armenia (Europe) →Austria (Europe) →OECD overall ranking →Europe region →
Data sourced from official OECD, ILO, and World Bank employment-protection datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainEmploy

Disclaimer: This information is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. Data is sourced from OECD, ILO, and World Bank labor market databases. Consult a qualified professional before making decisions based on this data.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Primary sources: ILO EPLex, World Bank B-READY, OECD EPL.

PlainEmploy is rendered directly from the OECD Employment Protection Legislation indicators, the ILO EPLex database, and the World Bank B-READY labor pillar, no number is typed in by an editor. This country's composite scores and comparisons are computed directly from the underlying OECD/EPLex/B-READY tables, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-30.