EU Pay Transparency Directive

Summary

• Legislation in force for the public sector within the French community
• Draft bill published for the public sector within the Dutch community
• Partial implementation – pay transparency, salary levels in job advertisements, family leave assessments
• Slightly higher expectation than the Directive
• Parliamentary proposal for a resolution has been published that sets out one possible approach to transposing the EU Pay Transparency Directive
  

The Belgian French community implemented the Directive for the Public sector within the French community. Draft bill was published for the public sector within the Dutch community. No draft bill was published yet for the private sector. However, the Commission for Social Affairs confirmed the transposition is ongoing and remains planned for June.

Summary

• Draft bill
• No gold plating

Czechia has published a draft bill at the end of March 2026 that broadly aligned with the Directive. It is anticipated that most provisions of the draft will enter into force on January 1, 2027, (after the deadline of June 7, 2026).

Summary

• Draft bill
• Total / Gold-plating light

Denmark published a draft bill broadly aligned with the Directive, subject to public consultation on March 27, 2026, expected to come into force by January 1st, 2027 (delayed from the deadline of June 7, 2026). The bill applies to both public and private sectors and includes reporting obligations for companies of 50-99 employees for certain conditions, which exceeds the Directive’s minimum threshold. The draft bill goes also beyond the Directive minimum’s requirement by imposing a response time of 4 weeks in case of further questions raised by employee to employers on the pay information.

Summary

The government of Estonia announced its intention to delay the implementation of the Directive into local legislation.

Summary

• Draft bill
• Partial implementation
• No gold-plating

In Finland, a draft bill currently before parliament aims for a “pure implementation” closely aligned with the Directive. It requires disclosure of initial pay levels or ranges before interviews and prohibits salary history inquiries. The draft also mandates gender pay gap reporting for employers with 250 or more employees annually, and every three years for those with 100 to 249 employees. Employers with 50 or more employees must provide accessible, objective, and gender-neutral criteria for pay and progression. The implementation date remains unknown, indicating the June 7, 2026 deadline is unlikely to be met. The draft legislation does not yet cover all aspects of the Directive, suggesting further legislative work is needed before full transposition can be achieved.

Summary 

• Draft bill
• Total / Gold-plating 

France has published a draft bill for implementation of the Directive on March 10, 2026. This bill was sent to the social partners, with the government targeting presentation to the Council of Ministers before summer 2026 – though meeting the EU’s 7 June 2026 deadline appears unlikely. The draft bill goes beyond the Directive minimum requirements and can be qualified as gold-plating. In that regard, there are reporting obligations foreseen every 3 years for companies with 50 employees. In addition, the definition of “work of equal value” also includes soft skills and working conditions. Lastly, the draft law includes the obligation to include the salary range and the relevant collective agreement related to the determination of the remuneration for the job in any job advertising. In line with the Directive, there is a prohibition of contractual clauses preventing employee from disclosing salary information.

Summary

• Commission report, no draft bill yet
• Partial implementation
• No gold-plating

Germany is still in the committee report phase with a draft bill that was expected in early 2026. The Commission recommended a minimalist approach with no gold-plating, staying close to the Directive's minimum requirements. The implementation date is unknown, making it highly unlikely Germany will meet the June 2026 deadline. The Committee's recommendations indicate that the right to request pay information would be introduced from either January or June 2027 (to be confirmed) and would be limited to once per year, with no co-determination rights if a collective agreement is in place. Germany's existing Pay Transparency Act 2017 is currently less restrictive than the Directive in several aspects, which the new legislation will need to address.

Summary

• Draft bill in parliament
• Partial implementation – salary levels in job advertisements, employers prohibited from asking about pay history

Summary

• Draft bill
• Total /No gold-plating

Draft bill broadly aligns with the Directive. The definition of pay is narrower than in the directive and work of equal value is based on NCBA. Initial pay or ranges should be included in the job ad.

The official text will be published and the deadline of June ’26 will be met.

Summary 

• Draft bill
• Total / Gold-plating light

Latvia has taken the notable step of choosing to transpose the Directive through an entirely new, standalone Pay Transparency Law, rather than amending its existing Labour Law. The draft law was published on 26 March 2026, and is currently under public consultation, after which it will need to be approved by the Cabinet of Ministers and subsequently adopted by the government. It is unknown when the implementation date will be, meaning Latvia, like many of its EU counterparts, is set to miss the 7 June 2026 transposition deadline.

Summary

• Draft bill
• Partial implementation
• Gold-plating light

Lithuania has presented draft proposals to the Ministry of Social Security aiming for partial implementation of pay transparency measures. Existing Labour Code provisions already meet some Directive requirements, such as mandatory pay information in job postings and gender pay gap reporting for employers with 20 or more employees. The draft legislation extends pay structure obligations and prohibits salary history inquiries, with fines for non-compliance. The implementation date is unknown, suggesting the June 2026 deadline will not be met.

Summary

• Partial implementation in force
• Awaiting further legislation

Malta has already partially implemented the Directive with legislation in force since August 27, 2025—well ahead of the June 2026 deadline—covering recruitment aspects and allowing applicants to request detailed wage structure breakdowns (gold-plating). However, full transposition remains incomplete, with no guidance yet on gender pay gap reporting thresholds and metrics. Malta's Legal Notice 112 of 2025 limits comparison rights to "same work" rather than the broader "work of equal value" as required by the Directive, representing a narrower interpretation. Additionally, Malta requires salary disclosure before an applicant commences employment rather than prior to interview, which is a less restrictive timeline than the Directive mandates.

Summary

• Draft

• Gold-plating – role of worker representatives, employer definition

The Netherlands published a draft law which broadly aligns with the Directive. The entry to force was delayed to January 1^st, 2027. The Dutch Council of State published an advice on April 7, 2026. The Council made some observations on the unclarity and void of the draft bill regarding the monitoring body, the inclusion of non-binary individuals in the reporting as well as on privacy safeguards and limits. In addition, the advice refers to the fact that the first reporting is delayed to June 7, 2028, while the Directive is requiring a first reporting in June 2027. Finally, it also notes that the draft law is not using the possibility to use a public authority in the wage reporting while this faculty is explicitly provided by the Directive.

Summary

• Partial implemenation in force
• Draft bill
• Gold-plating

Poland has partially implemented the EU Pay Transparency Directive with recruitment transparency requirements in force since December 24, 2025, but will not meet the June 7, 2026 deadline for full transposition, with implementation now expected in early 2027 following a six-month grace period from parliamentary approval. A second draft legislative package released on May 4, 2026 (dated April 29, 2026) includes significant gold-plating measures such as stricter response times for pay information requests (30 days instead of 2 months, or 14 days for companies with fewer than 50 employees), mandatory trade union agreement on job evaluation criteria (with a 30-day deadline), and a more specific remediation timeline of 10 months rather than the Directive's "reasonable period." The draft confirms that the 5% pay gap threshold applies in absolute value regardless of direction (whether women earn less or more than men), introduces detailed definitions of pay level based on actual remuneration without annualization requirements, and mandates extensive trade union consultation on position classification, report accuracy, and remedial actions. Poland's approach also explicitly includes temporary workers in headcount thresholds using "annual work units" (pro-rated based on actual employment periods), requires reporting for employers with 100+ employees (annually for 250+, every 3 years for 100-249), and establishes dual remediation routes where even pay gaps below 5% may require remedial action if unjustified by objective criteria.

Summary

• Draft bill 
• Total / Gold plating

Romania published a draft law for public consultation on 30th March 2026, fully aligned with the Directive. The consultation period runs until 8th April 2026. The draft law introduces stricter provisions regarding the right to information, notably reducing the response time to 30 days instead of the two months foreseen in the EU Directive. Although the entry into force date is not specified in the draft, the consultation timeline suggests it will be by June 7th, 2026.

Summary

• Approved draft bill
• Total / No gold plating

Slovakia published a draft bill on October 10, 2025, that broadly aligns with the directive. The bill was approved by the parliament on April 15 and will enter into force by June 1^st, 2026. The law is largely aligned with the Directive and replicates many of the Directive's core requirements faithfully. It does not meet the Directive’s minimum requirements in respect of the reporting deadline for medium employers, meaning that for employers with 100-249 employees, the first reporting is only due by June 2031.

Summary

• Public consultation
• Transposition approach - TBD

Spain has published a prior public consultation on the draft Royal Decree that will transpose Directive (EU) 2023/970, concerning the strengthening of equal pay between men and women through pay transparency measures. The public consultation does not include any draft text yet and it is therefore difficult to determine if the Spanish transposition will be a pure transposition or will go for a light/gold-plating effect. The consultation which started on April 24 will remain open until May 8. After the expiration of this term, the Spanish government will start the drafting of the new regulations to transpose the transparency obligations provided by the directive, considering that equal pay is already organized and regulated in the current Spanish regulations.

Summary

• Draft bill
• Total / No gold-plating

Sweden submitted a draft bill to the Government partially aligned with the Directive in January 2026. This draft law was initially expected to come into force by July 1^st, 2026, was afterwards delayed to January 1^st, 2027, and finally suspended. Sweden requests a new negotiation of the directive within the EU as the Swedish Government believes that the directive will cause administrative burden and complexity incompatible with the current Swedish labor market.

Status of Transposition

Transposition deadline

All member states are required to have implemented the Directive by 7 June 2026.

Scope

Directive scope and coverage

The key measures introduced by the Directive are:

• Member states are required to establish gender pay gap reporting regimes, with company-wide results as well as results broken down by categories of workers. Employers must conduct a pay assessment where pay reporting reveals a gender pay gap of at least 5% in any category of workers that cannot be justified by objective and gender-neutral factors, and which has not been remedied within six months of submission of the report;

• Requirement to disclose the pay level or pay range for an advertised role to ensure pay transparency for jobseekers;

• A prohibition on asking job candidates about their current pay and pay history;

• Limits on the extent to which employers can control workers discussing their rate of pay;

• Increased transparency in setting rates of pay;

• A right to information about pay rates in an effort to ensure that workers are able to identify disparities; and

• The requirement to identify categories of workers for pay reporting, joint pay assessment and pay transparency purposes brings the concept of equal value to the forefront of the approach to equal pay in the EU.

Employer thresholds under the Directive

The Directive provides that employers with 100 or more workers must meet the reporting thresholds, but member states can implement reporting requirements on a phased basis should they wish:

• Employers with at least 150 workers must submit their first report in 2027;

• Employers with at least 250 workers must report annually thereafter;

• Employers with between 150-249 workers must report once every three years; and

• Member states may delay the first reporting for employers with between 100-149 workers to 2031.

Pay Transparency & Secrecy

Pay transparency obligations at recruitment stage

Prospective employers are obliged to give job applicants information about the initial pay or pay range for a particular position. The Directive provides that the information must be provided in a manner that ensures a transparent and informed negotiation on pay, such as "in a published job vacancy notice, prior to the job interview or otherwise".

Employers are not allowed to ask applicants about their pay history and must ensure that job adverts and job titles are gender neutral, with the recruitment process being led in a non-discriminatory manner. This right to information does not explicitly extend to internal applicants but is expressed to be incumbent on prospective employers only.

Employee right to request pay information

Workers have the right to request and receive, within two months, written information on their individual pay level and the average pay levels, broken down by sex, for categories of workers doing the same work or work for equal value during their employment. Employers are required to inform all workers of this right on an annual basis.

Pay secrecy clauses

Employers cannot prevent workers from disclosing their pay for the purpose of the enforcement of the principle of equal pay. In particular, member states are required to put in place measures to prohibit contractual terms that restrict workers from disclosing information about their pay.

Transparency on pay and pay progression criteria

Employers must make easily accessible to their workers the criteria that are used to determine workers’ pay, pay levels and pay progression. Those criteria shall be objective and gender neutral. Member states may exempt employers with fewer than 50 workers from that obligation.

Gender Pay Gap Reporting

Differences with the Gender Pay Gap Reporting metrics

N/A

Non-Compliance

Employee remedies

Member states must ensure that workers are entitled to unlimited compensation in respect of all of the losses sustained where their equal pay rights have been breached. This must include: full recovery of back pay and related bonuses or payments in kind (together with interest); compensation for lost opportunities; non-material damage; any damage caused by other relevant factors (which may include intersectional discrimination); and interest on arrears.

Penalties / enforcement mechanisms

Member states are required to put in place penalties for employers that break the rules and workers who have suffered gender pay discrimination can receive compensation. Member states must also establish specific penalties for infringements of the equal pay rule, including fines that guarantee a real deterrent effect.

Other Relevant Provisions

Categories of worker performing same work or work of equal value

Work of equal value is determined by taking the following factors into account:

• Objective, gender-neutral criteria should be used, and they should be agreed with workers’ representatives, where such representatives exist;

• The criteria should not be based directly or indirectly on workers’ sex;

• The objective criteria should include skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions. These factors have been identified as being essential and sufficient for evaluating the tasks performed in an organisation regardless of the economic sector to which the organisation operates. If appropriate, any other factors which are relevant to the specific job or position should be taken into account; and

• Relevant soft skills should not be undervalued in the process.