A free PDF for employers and HR teams: what Directive (EU) 2023/970 requires, when each obligation applies and where each Member State stands.
What's inside the guide:
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970) is a binding EU law that aims to close the gender pay gap by enforcing equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between women and men. It is grounded in Article 157 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
It applies to all public and private employers in the EU and protects full-time, part-time and temporary employees, platform workers and, for pre-hiring transparency, job applicants.
This guide explains what the Directive requires from employers. To see how each Member State is transposing it, check our country-by-country Pay Transparency tracker.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| June 2023 | The Directive is adopted. |
| 7 June 2026 | Deadline for Member States to transpose the Directive into national law. |
| June 2027 | First gender pay gap reports: annual for employers with 250 or more employees, every three years for 150 to 249 employees. |
| June 2031 | Reporting starts for employers with 100 to 149 employees, every three years. |
| Ongoing | Pre-hiring transparency and pay information rights apply as soon as national law takes effect. |
Employers with fewer than 100 workers may report voluntarily or if national legislation requires it.
State the initial pay or pay range in the job advert or before the interview, use gender-neutral job titles and never ask candidates about their current or past salary.
Explain how pay and career progression are set, using objective, gender-neutral criteria such as skills, experience and performance. Member States may exempt employers with fewer than 50 workers.
Workers can request their own pay level and the average pay, broken down by gender, for colleagues doing the same work or work of equal value. Employers must answer within two months and remind staff of this right every year.
Reports must include the mean and median gender pay gap, the gap in variable pay, the share of men and women receiving variable pay, the gender distribution in pay quartiles and the gaps by category of workers.
A gender pay gap of 5% or more in any category of workers that is not objectively justified and not corrected within six months triggers a joint pay assessment with employee representatives.
Workers can claim full back pay with no cap, the burden of proof shifts to the employer, and claims can be filed for at least three years. Penalties include fines and exclusion from public contracts.
Whatever stage your country is at, these are the first steps to prepare your organisation:
The guide covers all 27 Member States. By October 2026, six had transposed the Directive, and each one adds its own national twist:
First Member State to transpose, with an Equal Pay Act in force since 7 June 2026.
Collective bargaining agreements are central, and pay information requests are limited to one per year.
Rules reach employers of every size, and pay gap indicators are calculated centrally by Sodra.
Transposed in two steps, with documented pay criteria required from 25 employees.
Fifth to transpose, through Law 5316/2026. Recruitment pay transparency applies to every employer, whatever its size, from 1 November 2026.
A partial transposition in force since 13 July 2026: pay ranges before interviews and no pay-secrecy clauses, with reporting deferred.
The other 21 Member States are at different stages, from bills before Parliament to no published draft. The guide includes a profile for each of them.
Directive (EU) 2023/970 is a binding EU law that aims to close the gender pay gap by enforcing equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. It introduces pay transparency before hiring, a right for workers to request pay information, gender pay gap reporting and joint pay assessments.
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