France misses EU deadline on gender‑pay‑transparency law

The European Union directive on pay transparency, adopted in 2003 to promote gender equality, set a June 7 deadline for member states to incorporate its provisions into national law. France will not meet this deadline, joining only a few other countries such as Slovakia and Italy that have already transposed the rule.

French Labour Minister Jean‑Pierre Farandou said the government hopes to pass the legislation by the end of the year, but negotiations between trade unions and employer organisations remain contentious. Employers have asked for a two‑year moratorium, describing the law as overly complex, while unions warn of destabilising social relations.

In the French private sector, women earn on average 21.8 % less than men, a gap that shrinks to 14 % for equal‑hour work and to 3.6 % for identical positions within the same company. The EU text would require companies to disclose salary ranges in job ads and give employees access to gender‑segregated pay data for work of equal value.