EU Pay Transparency Directive Status France: Missed: Targeting Jan 2027
France is one of 23 EU member states that missed the 7 June 2026 deadline. Only Slovakia, Italy, Lithuania and Malta transposed on time. France's preliminary draft law, sent to social partners on 6 March 2026, goes well beyond the Directive's minimum: it lowers the main reporting threshold to 50 employees (half the Directive's 100 employee standard), bans employers from asking candidates about pay history, prohibits pay secrecy clauses, and introduces a broader definition of work of equal value that includes non-technical skills and working conditions. Parliamentary debate is expected by the end of 2026, with the government targeting entry into force around 1 January 2027 for the core provisions. The pay secrecy ban and recruitment transparency rules are designed to apply immediately once the law is enacted, while most other obligations follow within a year or on dates set by decree, and reporting for the smallest newly covered employers is pushed out as far as 1 June 2030. Until this new law is adopted, France's existing Gender Equality Index keeps running unchanged, and large employers still face a first Directive-driven reporting deadline of 6 June 2027 regardless of when the new law itself is passed.
What is Pay Transparency, and who does it apply to?
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970) is a binding EU law requiring pay equity for equal work between women and men. It introduces mandatory rules around salary disclosure, pay gap reporting, and worker rights.
France was an early mover on pay transparency, enshrining equal pay in law back in 1972 and introducing the Index de l'egalite professionnelle femmes hommes in 2018, a public, scored measure of each employer's gender pay gap. The Rixain Law (2021) layered board level gender quotas on top, and France has since gone further than most of the EU with a detailed preliminary draft transposition law, treating the Directive as a floor rather than a ceiling. Even so, like most of the EU, France did not finish the job by the 7 June 2026 deadline.
Coverage scales with company size under both the current and proposed rules. Today's Gender Equality Index applies from 50 employees, a fifth scoring indicator and CSE disclosure kick in at 250+, and the Rixain Law's board-level gender quotas apply only to the largest employers, those with 1,000 or more staff. The new draft transposition would add its own tiers: works council information at 50 to 99 employees, full consultation from 100+, and an extended reporting deadline of 1 June 2030 for employers under 150.
What employers must do in France
Employers with 50 to 249 employees (current Gender Equality Index)
- Publish an annual Gender Equality Index score out of 100, tested for applicability every year based on headcount on 1 March
- Score four weighted indicators: the pay gap by age band and job category (40 points), the gap in individual pay-increase rates including promotions (35 points), the share of employees getting a raise in the year after returning from maternity leave (15 points), and the gender balance among the company's top 10 earners (10 points)
- File the score via the Index Egapro online portal by 1 March each year, and publish it on the company website or communicate it to staff if there is none
- Publish progress targets for each underperforming indicator if scoring below 85, or implement corrective measures with a three-year compliance window if scoring below 75
Employers with 250+ employees (current Gender Equality Index)
- Report a fifth indicator: the pay-increase gap measured separately from promotions, worth 20 of the 100 points
- Share full Index results with the Social and Economic Committee (CSE) via the Economic and Social Database
Employers with 1,000+ employees (Rixain Law)
- Calculate and publish the gender split among senior managers and governing body members
- Reach at least 30% female executives or board members by 1 March 2026, rising to 40% by 1 March 2029, with a two-year compliance window before penalties apply
Proposed under the new draft transposition, not yet enacted
- Employers with 50 to 99 employees: share pay data, calculation methodology and results with the works council
- Employers with 100+ employees: consult the works council on the same data, rather than simply informing it, and report its opinion to the labour authorities
- All covered employers: state a proposed pay range in job advertisements or in writing before or during the interview, and stop asking candidates about their pay history
- All covered employers: apply a broader test of work of equal value that considers non-technical skills and working conditions, not just job titles
- Employers with fewer than 150 employees: comply with pay gap reporting no later than 1 June 2030, a later deadline than larger companies get
Key deadlines
Penalties for non-compliance in France
Under the current Gender Equality Index, employers that fail to publish their score in a visible, readable way, or fail to implement effective corrective measures after a low score, risk a financial penalty of up to 1% of their annual payroll, enforced by Labour Inspectors. The new draft transposition proposes to keep that 1% of payroll penalty for major breaches such as reporting failures, incorrect declarations, or failing to negotiate corrective measures, while adding a smaller fine of up to €450 per breach for other violations such as a job advertisement missing a pay range, with higher penalties for repeat offenders.
The Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, and the Labour Inspectorate share enforcement responsibility for the Gender Equality Index and the Rixain Law quotas, and are expected to retain this role under the new transposition law.
How TalentUp can help you with Pay Transparency Compliance
Below you can see a preview of our platform, where we help you stay compliant with Pay Transparency by spotting pay inconsistencies and structural risks in your compensation strategy, analysing data from your company.
Book a demo| Name | Level | Location | Salary | Labels | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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John Doe
Software Developer
|
Mid
|
Paris
France
|
32500 EUR
Above market
|
Unbalanced
|
|
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Jane Smith
Project Manager
|
Senior
|
Paris
France
|
45000 EUR
Above market
|
In Market
|
|
|
Michael Brown
Data Analyst
|
Mid
|
Lyon
France
|
39000 EUR
Above market
|
In Market
|
|
|
Emily Johnson
QA Engineer
|
Mid
|
Lyon
France
|
36000 EUR
Above market
|
In Market
|
|
|
Robert Wilson
HR Manager
|
Senior
|
Marseille
France
|
50000 EUR
Above market
|
Above Market
|
|
|
Sarah Davis
Marketing Specialist
|
Junior
|
Marseille
France
|
34000 EUR
In market
|
In Market
|
MEAN PAY
39.4K EUR
MEDIAN PAY
37.5K EUR
MEAN FEMALE PAY
38.3K EUR
MEDIAN FEMALE PAY
36K EUR
MEAN MALE PAY
40.5K EUR
MEDIAN MALE PAY
39K EUR
Gender gap
Variable pay by gender
General gender pay gap
Pay gap insights
Add employee data to see pay gap insights
Tenure distribution
Pay gap per level (quartiles)
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Frequently asked questions about pay transparency in France
In France, this is a mandatory annual score out of 100 that measures the pay gap, promotion-rate gap, post-maternity pay raises and gender balance among top earners. Companies with 50+ employees must publish it every year by 1 March via the Index Egapro portal.