EU Pay Transparency Directive implementation tracker - September

With the transposition deadline for the EU Pay Transparency Directive now behind us, implementation across Europe continues to move at very different speeds from country to country.

Please find below our updated tracker, which we refresh on a quarterly basis, setting out the current state of play in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

For each jurisdiction, the tracker covers: the current status of transposition, aspects of the Directive already reflected in existing local law, and the practical steps employers are taking (or should be taking) now on job descriptions, job evaluation schemes, information for employees and new recruits, and gender pay gap reporting.

A few of the key developments and market insights we are seeing this quarter are set out below.

Belgium

• Draft legislation is still awaited. Belgium has requested a six-month extension from the European Commission to transpose the Directive. Based on recent discussions, work on the transposition appears to be progressing, albeit slowly. However, there is currently no clarity regarding the content of the measures under discussion or the timeline of the legislative process.
• The Directive will require significant amendments to existing Belgian legislation. In particular, Collective Labour Agreement n°25 on equal pay for male and female workers and Collective Labour Agreement n°38 on recruitment and selection are expected to be revised to reflect the new pay transparency requirements. In addition, the Wage Gap Act of 22 April 2012, which already imposes certain gender pay gap reporting obligations, will need to be updated to accommodate the Directive's broader and more detailed requirements.
• At the regional level, certain public-sector authorities have already adopted measures implementing all or part of the Directive. These initiatives, however, are limited to public employers within the scope of the relevant regional authorities and do not apply to private-sector employers.

France

• France missed the 7 June 2026 deadline to transpose.
• A bill was presented to the Council of Ministers on 10 September, which means the next step is the bill's formal deposit with Parliament for debate.
• This bill is, for the most part, the same as the version shared in June, with, however, confirmation that job evaluation will most likely be conducted at company level rather than at branch level.
• Progressive entry into force is expected between late 2026 and 1 January 2028.

Germany

• Germany missed the 7 June 2026 transposition deadline. In a recent parliamentary response in July 2026, the responsible Federal Ministry confirmed that it has completed the preparatory work for a draft bill and is currently addressing outstanding implementation issues. No draft legislation has been published to date, although a draft bill has been announced before the end of 2026.
• While the Government has not yet provided any indication of the proposed legislative content, the future implementation framework may draw on recommendations issued by the independent expert commission appointed by the German Federal Government in November 2025. The commission's key recommendations included:
  • Companies with at least 100 employees being required to publish information on the pay gap and regularly report on measures to promote equality, including concrete data on the gender pay gap
  • A shift of the burden of proof for unequal pay to shift to employers if employees can show facts suggesting discrimination
  • Introduction of sanctions for unequal pay, including financial penalties
• The commission also proposed several implementation measures that go beyond the Directive in certain respects.
• These include basing pay transparency reporting on actual pay, rather than just target pay; excluding certain remuneration elements like third-party stock options and minor benefits; limiting employee information requests to one request per year and only for current employees. The commission also called for clear justification grounds for pay differences and the use of digital tools and templates to simplify reporting.
• Employers should not wait for the formal implementation but continue to review their current practices and take preparatory steps to ensure compliance with the upcoming requirements.

Ireland

• Draft legislation is still awaited. The Department of Children, Disability and Equality, which is responsible for transposing the Directive in Ireland, has indicated that implementation will proceed on a phased basis.
• Based on the Department's statements to date, pre-employment pay transparency obligations look likely to be prioritised for earlier transposition. These include providing candidates with pay levels or pay ranges in advance of employment, and prohibiting employers from asking prospective employees about their pay history.
• The Department is expected to use the EU toolkit on job evaluation and classification as the framework for national guidelines, with workshops also expected to support employers in carrying out job evaluation exercises. To date, nothing has been published on either.
• The Directive's many references to cooperation with employee representatives are of considerable concern in Ireland, where a voluntarist model of industrial relations has traditionally prevailed and formal worker representation structures remain relatively uncommon. We expect some clarification when local legislation issues.

Italy

• 0n 7 June 2026, Legislative Decree No. 96/2026, implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive, entered into force.
• It provides for new requirements on recruitment and pay transparency, including the disclosure of starting pay or pay ranges in job advertisements, a prohibition on salary history enquiries and enhanced employee information rights.
• In the event of pay discrimination, the remedies and sanctions under Article 41 of Legislative Decree No. 198/2006 apply. These include a fine ranging from €250 to €1,500 and, where the employer benefits from public financial or credit incentives or has been awarded public contracts, the possible withdrawal of such benefits and, in serious or repeated cases, exclusion from further benefits or public contracts for up to two years.
• Employers in Italy should be, as a matter of priority, carrying out comprehensive mapping exercises of job descriptions, employee classification, and current remuneration practices to ensure compliance.

Netherlands

• As mentioned in the tracker, Dutch implementation was scheduled to enter into force on 1 January 2027, but recent indication is that this will not be debated in the House of Representatives until 11 January. Consequently, likely implementation will take place later in 2027 (unfortunately, no clear date has been communicated yet). As preparation will be time-consuming, it remains crucial for employers to continue preparing for a speedy implementation.
• Over the summer, the Dutch government provided further clarity on the path to implementation. The most recent drafts give employers a clearer view of the reporting obligation and what compliance will involve in practice, including on the definition of 'pay' for both the reporting and information obligations. Somewhat unexpectedly, the government has adopted a more lenient definition of pay than might have been anticipated under the Directive. This has raised questions, particularly around variable remuneration such as stock options and stock appreciation rights, which could potentially fall outside scope. Further clarity is expected this autumn.

Spain

• Spain is already ahead of many EU jurisdictions, as employers have been operating under pay transparency and equal pay frameworks since 2021, including mandatory pay registers for all companies and gender pay audits and job evaluation exercises for employers with 50+ employees. As a result, many of the Directive's core concepts are already embedded in local practice.
• The market is therefore not waiting for the Directive to start preparing. Most employers are currently focused on complying with existing Spanish requirements and are largely awaiting the final transposition rules before making any significant further adjustments to their processes and policies. The second draft bill has been published, but the final text and implementation timetable remain unclear.
• One area where Spain is particularly advanced is job evaluation. Spanish law already requires employers with 50+ employees to undertake a formal analytical job evaluation exercise to identify work of equal value, a concept that closely mirrors the Directive's requirements. As a result, we are seeing multinational groups look to the Spanish model when considering global job evaluation frameworks and how to address "work of equal value" obligations across other jurisdictions.
• The areas expected to require the most significant change relate to transparency towards candidates and employees, including salary range disclosures during recruitment, restrictions on salary history questions, enhanced employee information rights, and the lowering of the relevant pay gap threshold from 25% under current Spanish rules to 5% under the Directive framework. Employers are therefore beginning to assess whether existing remuneration structures would withstand the increased level of scrutiny expected following implementation.

We will continue to monitor developments across all eight jurisdictions and will have another update in the new year. In the meantime, please do get in touch if you would like to discuss how these developments affect your organisation, or would find it helpful to benchmark your preparations against the steps other employers are taking.