EU Pay Transparency Directive Status Romania: Deadline Missed: In Parliament
Romania's Ministry of Labour, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity published an initial draft transposition law on 30 March 2026, opening it for public consultation until 8 April 2026. A revised version followed the same structure and wording as the Directive. Romania did not finalize the law by the 7 June 2026 EU-wide deadline; instead, the bill was registered with the Senate on 17 June 2026 as B392/2026, and an emergency procedure was approved on 22 June 2026 to speed up passage. As of this update the bill remains under parliamentary debate rather than enacted, so Romania sits among the group of member states with a concrete, advanced draft but no final law. The Senate version reportedly shifted the proposed fine structure away from fixed amounts, originally 10,000 to 20,000 Romanian lei, doubling for repeat breaches, toward fines expressed as multiples of the national gross minimum salary. Because the bill can still change before final adoption, exact penalty figures should be treated as provisional until Romania's Parliament formally passes the law.
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.
Romania's Labor Code already bans gender-based pay discrimination and enshrines an equal pay principle, but it does not currently require private employers to publish or report gender pay gap data. To transpose EU Directive 2023/970, Romania published a draft law for consultation in March 2026, and after missing the 7 June 2026 EU deadline, registered a revised bill, B392/2026, with the Senate on 17 June 2026 under an emergency legislative procedure. As of early August 2026 the bill has not yet been passed into law, so Romanian employers are not yet bound by the Directive's new obligations.
Under the pending Romanian bill, mandatory gender pay gap reporting is expected to apply only to employers with 100 or more employees, split into bands of 100 to 149, 150 to 249 and 250-plus, while smaller Romanian employers would remain outside the reporting duty though still bound by the general equal pay principle.
What employers must do in Romania
All employers, regardless of size
- Continue complying with the existing Labor Code equal pay for equal work principle
- Prepare for an expected ban on asking candidates about salary history once the law passes
- Prepare for expected gender-neutral job title and job advertisement requirements
Employers with 100 to 149 employees (proposed)
- File a gender pay gap report with the Labour Inspectorate every three years, with a first deadline expected around 2031
- Disclose salary ranges to candidates before the first interview or in job postings
- Conduct a Joint Pay Assessment with employee representatives if an unjustified pay gap of 5% or more is found and not resolved within six months
Employers with 150 to 249 employees (proposed)
- File a triennial gender pay gap report, with a first deadline expected around 2027
- Provide employees a written response to individual pay information requests within two months
- Report on the proportion of male and female employees receiving variable or bonus pay
Employers with 250 or more employees (proposed)
- File an annual gender pay gap report covering mean and median pay gaps, including variable pay
- Report the gender distribution across pay quartiles
- Report pay gaps broken down by job category
Key deadlines
Penalties for non-compliance in Romania
The bill currently before the Senate proposes fines of 3 to 5 times the national gross minimum guaranteed salary for a first breach, rising to 5 to 10 times that salary for repeated breaches; an earlier draft instead proposed fixed fines of roughly 10,000 to 20,000 Romanian lei, doubling for repeat offenses. Because the law has not been finally adopted, the exact penalty structure Romania will apply is not yet certain.
Romania's territorial Labour Inspectorate is expected to investigate breaches and impose administrative sanctions once the transposition law takes effect.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
John Doe
Software Developer
|
Mid
|
Bucharest
Romania
|
32500 EUR
Above market
|
Unbalanced
|
|
|
Jane Smith
Project Manager
|
Senior
|
Bucharest
Romania
|
45000 EUR
Above market
|
In Market
|
|
|
Michael Brown
Data Analyst
|
Mid
|
Cluj-Napoca
Romania
|
39000 EUR
Above market
|
In Market
|
|
|
Emily Johnson
QA Engineer
|
Mid
|
Cluj-Napoca
Romania
|
36000 EUR
Above market
|
In Market
|
|
|
Robert Wilson
HR Manager
|
Senior
|
Timisoara
Romania
|
50000 EUR
Above market
|
Above Market
|
|
|
Sarah Davis
Marketing Specialist
|
Junior
|
Timisoara
Romania
|
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 Romania
Not yet. As of August 2026, the Romanian transposition bill, B392/2026, is still moving through the Senate under an emergency procedure; it missed the EU's 7 June 2026 deadline and has not been signed into law.