Key takeaways

  • Member states had until 7 June 2026 to transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970). Only a handful did, including Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Malta. The Netherlands, Sweden, Czechia, and Denmark have signalled 1 January 2027.
  • The Directive doesn't bind private employers directly until national law implements it. Local courts can still interpret existing equal-pay law in light of it.
  • The first gender pay gap reports are due by 7 June 2027 for employers with 150 or more workers in a member state, and the reference year is 2026. The data you collect this year is what you'll report on.

The Pay Transparency Directive is the most significant change to EU hiring practice in years. It reaches every step of the employment lifecycle: how you advertise a role, what you can ask a candidate, what an employee can ask you, and what you must publish. For multinationals that employ people in Europe through an Employer of Record, the practical question is whether the EOR is ready, and who does what.

What the Directive requires

Before hiring

  • Pay transparency for candidates. Applicants must receive the initial pay or pay range for the role, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria. This goes in the vacancy notice or is provided before interview.
  • No salary-history questions. Employers may not ask candidates about their current or past pay.

During employment

  • Right to information. Workers can request, in writing, their individual pay level and the average pay levels, broken down by sex, for workers doing the same work or work of equal value. Employers must remind workers of this right every year.
  • No pay-secrecy clauses. Workers can't be prevented from disclosing their own pay.
  • Transparent progression criteria. The criteria used to set pay and progression must be accessible to workers.

Reporting

  • 250+ workers: annual gender pay gap report, first due 7 June 2027.
  • 150–249 workers: every three years, first due 7 June 2027.
  • 100–149 workers: every three years, first due 7 June 2031.
  • Joint pay assessment: required where the report shows a gap of 5% or more in any category of workers that isn't justified by objective, gender-neutral factors and isn't remedied within six months.

The burden of proof also shifts. In an equal-pay claim, it's up to the employer to show there was no discrimination.

What it means if you employ through an EOR

Under an EOR arrangement, the EOR is the legal employer in each country. That puts the employment contract, the payroll data, and many of the Directive's obligations with the EOR. The job architecture, pay decisions, and headcount plan still sit with you. A workable program needs clear answers to five questions:

  1. Who publishes the pay range in the job ad, and who sets it?
  2. Who answers a right-to-information request, and against which comparator group: the EOR's population in that country, or yours?
  3. Whose headcount counts toward the reporting thresholds under the national transposition?
  4. Who holds the job-evaluation criteria that justify pay differences as objective and gender-neutral?
  5. Who owns remediation if a joint pay assessment is triggered?

National laws will answer some of these differently, which is why they belong in the EOR contract now and not after the first request arrives.

How Elevated Resources approaches it

Our Employer of Record programs in the EU (Ireland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and partner countries) track transposition country by country through the Regulatory Map in Altitude Workspace. Pay-range capture is built into the requisition, and pay data is structured by role family so right-to-information responses and gap reporting can be produced from the system instead of reconstructed from spreadsheets. The allocation of responsibilities is written into the program's statement of work.

This article is general information, current as of its publication date. It is not legal advice. Transposition is ongoing and national requirements will vary. Sources: Directive (EU) 2023/970; Morgan Lewis (June 2026); Mayer Brown (July 2026).