Stay Informed on European Pay Transparency Laws
With countries around the world working to close pay gaps and the European Union’s recent directive focused on pay transparency, it’s more important than ever that your organisation stay up-to-date on what the latest laws mean for you. Here you can learn the latest about current and proposed transparency legislation in Europe.
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Your Guide to European Pay Transparency Laws
Between the recent EU directive on pay transparency and current legislation across the continent, momentum around the topic of pay transparency is not slowing down. To help you stay up-to-date and successfully navigate changing regulations, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of current and proposed transparency laws across Europe, in one spot.
Payscale will provide updates to any legislation as soon as reasonably practicable. While this is merely a reference guide, please ensure that you speak to your own legal counsel if you have any questions about the legislation below.
| Member State | Current Pay Reporting Requirement? | Who? | What? | When? | How? | Pay Transparency Legislation* | Link to law |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | Yes | Private sector employers with more than 150 employees | Wage report must give the number of men and women in each renumeration group and their mean/median wages either by company job classifications or by job classifications used in the CBAs. | Every two years | Central works counsel must be informed. If there is no worker representation, company has to display the report in a room accessible to all employees. Not publicly published online. | Equal Treatment Act and Federal Equal Treatment Act, 2011 amendments | |
| Belgium | Yes | Private sector employers with 50 or more employees | Annual salary and benefits received by employees broken down on the basis of different parameters, and disaggregated by gender. | Every two years | Must be provided to works council. Not publicly published. | Gender Pay Gap Act, 2012 | |
| Bulgaria | |||||||
| Croatia | |||||||
| Cyprus | |||||||
| Czech Republic | |||||||
| Denmark | Yes | Employers with 35 or more employees. Not applicable to CBAs with equal pay obligations | Publicly disclose wage stats between men and women with the same job if the company has more than 10 men and women working in the same position | Annually–before September | Workers given results through their representatives, and published with the Statistic Denmark | Equal Pay Act 2007 | |
| Estonia | |||||||
| Finland | Yes | Employers with 30 or more employees. Public and private sector | Must include details of the employment of men and women in different jobs and a classification jobs performed by men and women, the pay for those jobs and the differences in pay. | Every two years | Reports must be prepared in conjunction with the shop steward, the elected representative, the occupational safety and health representative, or other employee appointed representatives. | Equality Act 2014 | |
| France | Yes | Private sector employers with at least 50 employees | Must measure and publish the following: the pay gap percentage between women and men calculated on the average renumeration of women and men in the same age group and by job category; the gap in the rate of individual salary increases between women and men; the gap in the rate of promotion between women and men; percentage of women benefiting from a salary increase in the year following their return from maternity leave; and number of employees of the underrepresented sex among the 10-highest paid employees. | Annually | Works councils, workers represenatives. If more than 250 employees, employers must also publish on Ministry of Labour’s website | Law n° 2018-771 of September 5, 2018 on freedom to choose one’s professional future – Articles 104 and 105 | |
| Germany | Yes | Private sector employers with more than 500 employees | Must file a report on gender equality and equal pay describing (1) measures to promote equality between men and women; (2) measures to create equal pay between women and men, plus gender-disaggregated statistis on the average number of employees and the average number of full-time and part-time employees. | Every three to five years | Must inform employees and publicly published in Federal Gazette | Act to Promote Pay Transparency | |
| Greece | |||||||
| Hungary | |||||||
| Ireland | Yes | Employers with 250 or more employees | Employers must publish the following: the mean and median gap in hourly pay between male and female full-time, part time, and temporary employees; the mean and median gap in bonus pay between male and female employees; the percentage of male and female employees who received bonus pay; the percentage of male and female employees who received benefits in kind; and the percentage of male and female employees in each quartile band. | Annually | Must publish the information on employer webiste and ensure that the information is accessible to their employees and the public | Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 | |
| Italy | Yes | Private and public sector employees with more than 50 employees | The report must include: the number of male and female workers employed and hired during the year and their professional distribution in the organization as well as the distribution of full-time and part time contracts; the difference in wages (base salary and total compensation) and benefits; selection and recruitment processes; criteria adopted for career advancement, access to professional development and managerial training; measures to promote work-life balance; and diversity and inclusion policies. | Every two years | Must inform trade unions, Regional Gender Equality Advisor which analyzes the report and sends the results to the National Equality Advisor; the Ministry of labour and social policies; the Department for equal opportunities at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. | Law 162/2021 | |
| Latvia | |||||||
| Lithuania | Yes | Private and public sector employers, an average number of employees of 20 or more | The report must include the average renumeration according to gender reported for the whole company, per type of employee, per job position, per more general job categories and/or per salary class applied. | Annually | Works councils or other workers’ representatives at company level | Article 23(2) of the Labour Code, 2017 | |
| Luxembourg | |||||||
| Malta | |||||||
| Netherlands | |||||||
| Poland | |||||||
| Portugal | Yes | Private sector employers with 50 or more employees | The report must include the following statistical information: (1) genderal and sectoral barometer of pay differences between women and men; (2) balance of pay differences between women and men by company, profession and qualification levels | Annually | Individual employees, works councils, or other workers’ represenatives at company level, social partners, equality and/or state bodies, Labour administration | Regulated by Ordinance No. 55/2010, 2011 and Law no. 60/2018 | |
| Romania | |||||||
| Slovakia | |||||||
| Slovenia | |||||||
| Spain | Yes | Private sector with 50 or more employees and those under a CBA | Report must show the average and median salary, per sex, of each professional category, or in some companies, work of equal value | Annually | Individual employees, works councils, or other workers’ representatives at company level. | Article 28.2 of the Workers Statute and Articles 5 and 6 of Royal Decree 902/2020 of 13 October 2019 | |
| Sweden | Yes | Private and public sector, if an employer has more than 10 employees they need to document their work on pay audits | Employer must share the survey, and create a written action plan for achieving equal pay. | Annually | The report must be undertaken in conjunction with employees and employee organizations. | Discrimination Act, 2008 |
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