Ingólfsson’s new government role was triggered when Minister of Education Guðmundur Ingi Kristinsson had to resign over health problems.
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Inga Sæland, who had been Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, moved to education, and Ingólfsson got her post – which is now called Minister of Social Affairs and Housing – and retains responsibility for employment issues.
Ingólfsson started his career selling bicycles and worked in a bike shop for almost 25 years.
He began joining discussions on social affairs in 2007, just before the financial crisis hit Iceland. His main focus was pension funds, which he criticised mainly for a lack of transparency and for the fact that the public was not allowed to run for board positions.
In 2009, he ran for a seat on the board of the VR, one of the biggest trade unions in Iceland. He secured that, and in 2017, after eight years, he was elected chairman of the VR board. He led the union until he was elected to parliament in 2024.
During his time as VR chairman, he was part of a group of labour union leaders who took a more aggressive approach in their fight to increase the lowest salaries more rapidly than others. That led to occasional strikes.
Ever since the crisis in 2008, he has called for a change in the pension system, pointing out that the funds lost 500 billion Icelandic kroner (€3.4bn) after the collapse of the banking system.
One of his main criticisms is that the interaction between pension funds and social security means no two people have the same pension rights, unless they rely solely on social security.
So, he wanted the pension to reflect the cost of living. The system risked trapping those with the lowest income in poverty. During his time on the VR board, he also criticised the pension funds’ investments.
He pointed out that many of the companies that rented out apartments were partially owned by the pension funds, resulting in the funds making more when rents were high.
Alongside that, he joined new political parties that were formed after the crisis. He ran for parliament in 2016 for a party called Dögun, but the party did not gain enough votes to secure any parliamentary seats.
After he was elected to parliament in 2024, he came in for criticism from those who felt he had changed now that he was in politics and no longer a trade union leader.
He intended to continue as leader of VR after he was elected to parliament, but was forced to leave that post after heavy criticism. Later, he was criticised for receiving 10 million Icelandic kroner (€68,800) in severance pay, which was part of his deal with the union.
But his other big battle through the years is connected to housing. He wanted to see more affordable housing being built, but he also wanted to make it easier for people to buy a home with a mortgage.
During his time at VR, he helped set up a tenancy company run by the union that was not profit-driven. The purpose was to help people on low incomes get an affordable rental apartment.
He was also very critical of the Icelandic central bank manager for keeping interest rates too high, and even demanded his resignation in an article.
Therefore, it was no surprise that when he took over, he said he wanted to increase the number of apartments, both short-term and long-term.
“Creating predictability and reducing volatility are the big issues,” he told the media.
And in a statement on Facebook, he also said:
“The labour market is also an important field, and one that I know well, and my experience will be useful.”
