Filenews 13 October 2025 - by Theano Thiopoulou
The working environment changes in the summer of 2026 with the new EU directive that must be introduced into national law. Companies operating within the EU will be required to provide information about their salaries when posting job vacancies and will be prohibited from asking candidates about their pay history.
Employees will also have the right to request information from their employers about the average salary of colleagues with similar tasks. The rules of the Transparency Directive aim to combat pay discrimination and contribute to closing the gender pay gap in the EU, according to the Council of the European Union.
The Directive has to be transposed into national law by 7 June 2026. Those rules should also apply from that date. The rules aim to combat pay discrimination and contribute to closing the gender pay gap in the EU, according to the Council of the European Union. An important element in eliminating pay discrimination is pay transparency before starting employment. This Directive should therefore also apply to applicants for employment.
The Member States of the European Union ensure that employers have pay structures that exclude any pay discrimination on grounds of sex.
The assessment of comparable work must be based on criteria such as skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions, as well as other criteria that are considered relevant to the job or position in question. The criteria must be applied in an objective, gender-neutral manner, excluding any direct or indirect discrimination on grounds of sex.
Pay transparency measures stipulate that job seekers:
• They have the right to be informed by the prospective employer before an interview about the initial remuneration for a job or its scope and, where applicable, details of the provisions of the collective agreement applied by the employer in relation to the position;
•Workers have the right to request (directly or through their representatives or the national equality body) information on their individual pay level and average pay levels, by gender, for categories of workers performing the same work or work of equal value to them.
The Directive should apply to everyone without exceptions
The Directive should apply to all workers, including part-time workers, fixed-term workers and persons who have a contract or employment relationship with a temporary work agency, as well as workers in managerial positions, who have an employment contract or relationship as defined by the law, collective agreements and/or practice applicable in each Member State; case-law of the Court of Justice.
Provided that they meet the relevant criteria, domestic workers, on-demand workers, card-based workers, platform workers, workers in sheltered work, trainees and apprentices, fall within the scope of this Directive.
The principle of equal pay should be respected with regard to wages or remuneration and any other consideration, in cash or in kind, that employees receive, directly or indirectly, from their employer in return for their work. According to the case-law of the court, the concept of remuneration should include not only the salary, but also complementary or variable elements of the remuneration.
The additional or variable elements should take into account all benefits other than the usual basic or minimum wage or remuneration received by the worker directly or indirectly, in cash or in kind. Such complementary or variable elements may include, but are not limited to, bonuses, overtime compensation, travel facilities, accommodation and meal allowances, training allowances, dismissal payments, statutory sickness compensation, statutory required compensation, and occupational pensions.
In order to ensure a uniform presentation of the information required by this Directive, pay levels should be expressed as gross annual earnings and corresponding gross hourly earnings.
