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EU PAY TRANSPARENCY DIRECTIVE HUB

All you need to know about the EU Pay Transparency Directive

The EU Pay Transparency Directive aims to enforce equal pay and eliminate gender pay gaps by increasing transparency and strengthening worker’s rights to information about pay and pay structures.

EU Member States had until 7 June 2026 to transpose the Directive into national legislation. For some this has meant the introduction of new legislation to address pay transparency and equal pay, for others it involves adapting their existing national legislation to account for the new rules. The deadline has now passed and the picture across the EU is mixed with many Member States not yet having the necessary legislation in place. A small number of Member States have implemented legislation to meet the deadline and others are still only at a very early stage. Our implementation map gives a snapshot of readiness across the EU on 7 June 2026.

What does the EU Pay Transparency Directive say?

The Directive sets out four key objectives:

Greater transparency on pay for job applicants: Applicants will be entitled to access information about the initial salary range for a position prior to interview. The aim of this is to empower potential workers to negotiate fair compensation and to make recruitment processes more equitable. The Directive also prohibits employers from asking prospective workers about pay history to ensure inequalities are not "baked in" at the recruitment stage.
Salary transparency: Companies will be required to disclose information regarding their pay policies, including gender pay gaps, to ensure transparency and facilitate comparisons. Existing workers will also have the right to request pay information for others in the organisation doing the same work or work of equal value. Employers will not be able to prevent workers discussing pay information to enforce equal pay rights and there should be no contractual terms that restrict workers from disclosing their pay or seeking pay information of others.
Gender pay gap reporting and joint pay assessments: Companies with at least 100 workers will be mandated to report publicly data in relation to the company's gender pay gap. Where reporting reveals a gap of at least 5% and the employer is unable to justify such a difference in average pay level by objective and gender-neutral factors and has not remedied the difference within six months, employers will need to carry out a joint pay assessment. Employers carrying out a joint pay assessment should do so in co-operation with their workers' representatives on the reasons behind this and come up with a plan to address and prevent the disparity.
Remedies and Enforcement: The Directive seeks to safeguard workers from retaliation when they seek information about their own pay or file complaints regarding pay discrimination. Furthermore, a worker who has suffered harm because of an infringement of the Directive will have the right to seek compensation. Member States will be required to put in place penalties for employers that infringe the rules.

What are the implications for employers?

Employers with operations in EU Member States will need to comply with the national legislation once it is introduced to meet the requirements of the Directive. With an uncertain future timetable for implementation across different Member States, employers need to keep track of national legislation in each Member State in which they operate. Many employers across the UK and the EU may also want to align their equal pay processes and pay transparency policies across the organisation to avoid inconsistencies and operational challenges of having different processes and policies within the workforce. Multi-national organisations will want to consider their approach to pay transparency across different jurisdictions to meet the divergent national requirements while providing consistency for their workforce. With pay transparency becoming a global trend, employees are increasingly expecting openness about pay structures and fairness. Proactively addressing pay transparency will be important for attracting and retaining talent.

Resources

Implementation Map

Our Implementation Map shows the progress being made by each country at a glance.

View the map

EU Pay Transparency Directive Implementation Tracker

Our EU Pay Transparency Directive Implementation Tracker charts the progress being made by each Member State towards fully implementing the Directive.

View the Tracker

Timeline: EU Pay Transparency Directive, dates 07 June 2026 and 07 June 2027 for gender pay gap information.

EU Pay Transparency Directive Timeline

Find out the deadlines for implementing the provisions of the Directive with our EU Pay Transparency Directive Timeline.

View the timeline

Which countries have implemented and how to prepare

While the EU Pay Transparency Directive does not directly affect the UK, many multi-national employers with UK and EU operations may be looking to implement pay transparency provisions to ensure uniformity across its organisation. Take a look at our article setting out the key requirements of the Directive and what multi-national employers should do to prepare.

Read the article