Ladies within the EU earn on common 12% much less per hour than males, in accordance with Eurostat. To deal with this persistent gender pay hole, the EU is introducing new guidelines on pay transparency designed to strengthen the precept of “equal pay for equal work”.
For tens of millions of employees, understanding the pay vary earlier than making use of for a job can imply the distinction between negotiating confidently and settling at nighttime, afraid it might harm employment prospects.
The directive might lastly get rid of the hush-hush tradition round salaries — levelling the taking part in area for youthful workers, returners from parental depart, and anybody who has traditionally been underpaid for a similar position.
Beneath the Pay Transparency Directive, EU Member States are required to implement the laws by 7 June 2026. Nonetheless, progress throughout the Union has been gradual, elevating issues that a number of nations might miss the deadline subsequent yr.
Extra not too long ago, the Netherlands delayed the implementation of laws in accordance with PwC. The brand new anticipated implementation date is 1 January 2027.
“On the finish of 2025, most EU nations are usually not but prepared with the implementation of the Directive and, normally, are progressing slowly,” Monika Krzyszkowska Dabrowska, head of employment apply in Addleshaw Goddard’s Warsaw workplace, instructed Euronews Enterprise.
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So, which EU nations are main the best way in implementing the Pay Transparency Directive, and the way far alongside is the remainder of the Union?
In response to Addleshaw Goddard’s implementation tracker as of September 2025, 10 out of 27 nations haven’t but taken any motion towards implementing the directive. These embrace Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Slovenia.
In eight nations, draft laws is predicted. These embrace Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain. This means {that a} technical committee or working group has been established, a proposal has already been ready, and negotiations with stakeholders are at present underway.
In 4 nations, draft laws has already been printed: Eire, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Partial implementation is underway in three nations, particularly Belgium, Malta, and Poland.
Germany can also be making ready to replace its act in keeping with the directive.
There are numerous approaches to implementation. Krzyszkowska-Dabrowska acknowledged that some nations are adapting and adjusting present legal guidelines — usually the place nationwide laws already addresses necessities much like these within the Directive — whereas others are introducing solely new legal guidelines that intently mirror the Directive’s provisions, significantly the place there isn’t a comparable authorized framework in place.
Dr. Duncan Brown, principal affiliate on the Institute for Employment Research (IES), famous that the directive covers a number of features of pay transparency and applies to nations with numerous present frameworks for making certain equal pay.
Many nations have already applied some components, which explains the slower progress towards full compliance.
As an illustration, Austria has had a transparency initiative since 2011 and, in accordance with Dr. Andreas Gulyas from the College of Vienna, solely minor changes are wanted to fulfill the brand new necessities.
“Though there don’t look like particular teams brazenly opposing the Directive as such, its introduction carries important weight for nationwide legal guidelines and is usually perceived as each revolutionary and problematic for using entities,” mentioned Krzyszkowska-Dabrowska.
It additionally imposes further obligations on employers, grants new rights to staff — together with a broader scope to convey claims — and will increase the powers of courts and authorities.
She additionally identified that whereas the provisions of the directive are clear and extremely technical, their sensible interpretation and utility current challenges.
“Collectively, these modifications are set to reshape the authorized panorama and introduce further burdens, necessitating a scientific strategy with varied interrelated options,” she added.
“For the reason that directive was handed in 2023, the political and financial volatility and crises that began with Covid … have continued on this unstable and unpredictable decade,” Brown from the IES instructed Euronews Enterprise.
He emphasised that, due to this fact, nationwide governments have had different priorities on their agendas.
Points embrace the battle in Ukraine and the necessity to quickly improve defence spending, widespread cost-of-living crises, and the rise of far-right populism with manifestos which are typically anti-establishment and “anti-woke”.
“All of this has meant that already busy legislative agendas have been severely stretched,” he added.
Germany has not but printed a draft invoice to implement the directive. The federal government arrange an professional fee in July 2025 to arrange suggestions, with outcomes anticipated by late autumn, in accordance with Marijke van der Most, employment accomplice in Addleshaw Goddard’s German workplaces.
The delay is essentially defined by Germany’s extraordinary political state of affairs in 2025.
Following snap federal elections earlier this yr, the nation went by way of a full change of presidency. “This course of briefly interrupted the legislative agenda, as the brand new administration needed to concentrate on coalition negotiations and instant political priorities earlier than returning to pending EU implementation issues,” she mentioned.
She thinks that it stays sensible that Germany will meet the June 2026 transposition.
In France, a invoice is predicted in autumn 2025 following consultations with social companions, in accordance with the Addleshaw Goddard tracker. No transposition exercise has but been reported in Italy.
Spain has already launched obligations concerning pay transparency, such because the gender pay register for all firms and the gender pay audit for firms with 50 or extra staff. The directive would require most organisations to evaluation their pay fashions and outline their remuneration insurance policies in a way more exact method.
In response to Certainly, salary transparency in job postingshas been steadily rising throughout many nations, though the momentum has slowed in latest months.
The UK has the very best price at 65% in Could 2025, adopted by France (48%), and the Netherlands (46%). Italy, Spain, and Germany discover themselves on the decrease finish of the size, with 25%.
Whereas the UK continues to have the very best price of pay transparency, the share of UK job postings together with wage info has declined. In August, about 56% of job listings on Certainly included wage particulars, practically 10 share factors decrease than in the beginning of the yr.
