EU Pay Transparency Directive Implementation Lags Across Member States

The EU’s pay‑transparency directive, which required member states to transpose the rules into national law by 7 June 2026, remains only partially implemented. Five countries – Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Malta and Slovakia – have fully adopted the legislation, while others such as Poland and Estonia have applied only the recruitment‑related provisions. The Czech Republic has yet to pass the necessary amendment, despite criticism from the ombudsman’s office that the delay hampers efforts to expose gender‑based wage gaps.

The directive obliges employers to disclose starting salaries or pay ranges in job ads, use gender‑neutral language, refrain from asking candidates about prior earnings, and provide employees with individual and average pay data broken down by sex. Employers with at least 100 workers must publish gender‑pay‑gap statistics, and a joint pay audit is required if an unexplained gap of 5 % or more is found. The EU currently reports an average gender pay gap of 11.1 %.