EU Pay Transparency Directive: what recruiters must change, and which countries have transposed it
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The EU Pay Transparency Directive, Directive (EU) 2023/970, changes three things a recruiter does every week: when a candidate learns the pay, what you may ask about their current pay, and how the employer justifies what it pays. Member states had until 7 June 2026 to turn it into national law. Most missed that date. As of early October 2026, only a handful of countries have adopted national laws, so for a recruiter the practical question is not "what does the directive say" but "what does the law in the country where this person will work say today."
Not legal advice. The directive summary below was checked against the text published in the Official Journal of the EU (EUR-Lex), and the national laws against each country's official legislation site, as of October 2026. National laws differ from the directive and from each other, and several are still in draft. Confirm the rules for a specific country with local counsel.
What the directive requires during hiring
Article 5 is the part that reaches recruiting. It has three rules.
- Pay information before the negotiation. Applicants have the right to receive from the prospective employer information about "the initial pay or its range," based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, and any relevant collective agreement provisions. The information must be given in a way that ensures an informed negotiation, "such as in a published job vacancy notice, prior to the job interview or otherwise."
- No pay history questions. Article 5(2): an employer "shall not ask applicants about their pay history during their current or previous employment relationships."
- Gender-neutral ads and process. Vacancy notices and job titles must be gender neutral, and the recruitment process must be run in a non-discriminatory way.
Note what the directive does not say. It does not require the range in the ad itself; the ad is one option, the interview is the deadline. It does not cap how wide a range can be. And "pay" is defined broadly in Article 3: the basic wage or salary plus any other consideration, in cash or in kind, including variable components. National laws fill in the detail, and some are stricter than the directive.
What changes after the hire
The rest of the directive governs employees, but it shapes what a recruiter can promise a candidate.
| Article | Rule | Why a recruiter should care |
|---|---|---|
| Art. 4 | Employers must have pay structures that ensure equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, based on skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions | An offer outside the structure needs a reason you can write down |
| Art. 6 | The criteria used to set pay, pay levels and pay progression must be easily accessible to workers (states may exempt employers under 50 workers from the progression part) | New hires will be able to see how their pay was set |
| Art. 7 | Workers may request, and must receive in writing within two months, their own pay level and the average pay levels, by sex, for workers doing the same work or work of equal value; pay secrecy clauses are prohibited | A generous exception for one hire will be visible to colleagues who ask |
| Art. 9 | Gender pay gap reporting by employer size (see below) | Starting salaries feed directly into the reported gap |
| Art. 10 | Joint pay assessment with worker representatives when reporting shows a gap of at least 5% in any category of workers that is not justified by objective, gender-neutral criteria and not remedied within six months | Unexplained starting-pay differences are the easiest way to create a gap |
| Art. 18 | Burden of proof shifts to the employer in pay discrimination cases, and where it has not met its transparency obligations under Articles 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 | Skipping the pre-interview pay disclosure weakens the employer's position in any later claim |
Reporting dates by employer size
| Workers | First report due | Then |
|---|---|---|
| 250 or more | 7 June 2027 (covering 2026) | Every year |
| 150 to 249 | 7 June 2027 | Every three years |
| 100 to 149 | 7 June 2031 | Every three years |
| Under 100 | Not required by the directive | Member states may require it |
Which countries have transposed it, as of October 2026
We checked each of these against the country's official legislation or ministry site. "Partial" means the country has enacted the hiring rules but not yet the full directive.
| Country | National law | Status for hiring rules |
|---|---|---|
| Italy | Legislative Decree No. 96 of 7 May 2026, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on 1 June 2026 | In force from 7 June 2026 |
| Malta | Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations, 2026, Legal Notice 173 of 2026, Government Gazette of 5 June 2026 | Adopted |
| Slovakia | Act No. 76/2026 Coll. on equal pay for men and women | Adopted; reported in force from 7 June 2026 |
| Lithuania | Amendments to the Labor Code adopted by the Seimas | Core rules from 7 June 2026, according to the Lithuanian government; some provisions later |
| Greece | Law 5316/2026, Government Gazette A' 105 of 6 July 2026 | Article 48 delays the pay transparency articles (8 to 20 and 27) to 1 November 2026 |
| Estonia (partial) | Amendments to the Employment Contracts Act, adopted 17 June 2026 | In force 13 July 2026: pay or range in writing before the interview, no pay history questions, no ban on employees disclosing their pay; reporting and pay structures not yet transposed (Ministry of Economic Affairs) |
| Poland (partial) | Act of 4 June 2025 amending the Labor Code, Dz.U. 2025 item 807 | Recruitment rules in force since 24 December 2025; the rest still to come |
The other member states had not adopted a final national law by early October 2026, as far as we could find. Several, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and the Czech Republic, had drafts at various stages. Law-firm trackers disagree on a few countries (Belgium, for example, has acted for parts of its public sector only), so check the national labor ministry before relying on any summary, including this one. The European Commission has said it will not delay the deadline, which means countries that missed it can face infringement proceedings; it also means employees may try to rely on the directive directly against public-sector employers, a question for counsel rather than for a recruiter.
What to do in a country that has not transposed yet
A missing national law does not make the directive irrelevant to a hire. Laws are arriving month by month, a req opened in September may close under a new law in December, and some countries already had overlapping rules before the directive. The low-risk approach is to run every EU hire as if Article 5 already applied:
- Give the starting pay or range in writing before the first interview. Put it in the ad when you can. If you cannot, put it in the interview confirmation email.
- Delete pay history from every form and script. That includes "current salary" fields in the application, intake forms you send to agency partners, and submittal templates. Ask what the candidate expects instead, using the wording in salary expectation questions.
- Write down why the offer sits where it does. Skills, experience relevant to the job, the location. Under Article 18 the employer may have to prove the pay difference was not discriminatory, and the hiring notes are where that proof starts.
- Use gender-neutral titles. In several EU languages that means both grammatical forms or a neutral form in the title, not just the body text.
- Check the national law at offer stage, not only at posting. A country can move from draft to in-force during a single search.
How it compares with US pay transparency laws
US recruiters who already post ranges for California, Colorado or New York roles will find most of Article 5 familiar, with three differences that matter.
- The pay history ban is universal. In the US it depends on the state; see salary history ban states. Under the directive it applies to every covered employer.
- The range follows the employee. US laws mostly stop at the posting. The directive gives employees a continuing right to see how pay is set and to request averages by sex for comparable work, so a starting salary has to survive scrutiny long after the offer.
- Size thresholds are about reporting, not disclosure. The hiring rules in Article 5 have no employer-size threshold; only gap reporting does.
For the US side, see pay transparency laws by state. For the other EU law that now reaches recruiting tools, see the EU AI Act and recruiting, and for the privacy notice candidates should receive, the GDPR candidate privacy notice template.
A checklist for an EU requisition
EU HIRE: PAY TRANSPARENCY CHECKLIST (as of October 2026)
[ ] Country of work identified; national transposing law checked
(in force / adopted with later start date / draft only)
[ ] Starting pay or range set from the employer's pay structure,
using objective, gender-neutral criteria
[ ] Range given in the ad, or in writing before the first interview
[ ] Collective agreement provisions for the role identified, if any
[ ] No current or past pay question in the application, screen,
agency intake form or submittal
[ ] Job title and ad text gender neutral
[ ] Reason for the final offer level written in the hiring record
[ ] Employer size noted for reporting (100 / 150 / 250 workers)
Questions people ask
When does the EU Pay Transparency Directive apply to employers?
The directive itself binds member states, which had to transpose it into national law by 7 June 2026. Employers are bound by each country's national law, so the start date depends on the country: Italy and Lithuania applied their core rules from 7 June 2026, Estonia from 13 July 2026, and Greece's main obligations start on 1 November 2026.
Does the directive require a salary range in every job ad?
Not exactly. Article 5 gives applicants the right to information about the initial pay or its range before the interview or otherwise in time for an informed negotiation, and gives a published vacancy notice as one way to do it. Some national laws go further, so check the country where the role is based.
Can an employer in the EU ask a candidate what they earn now?
No. Article 5(2) says an employer shall not ask applicants about their pay history in their current or previous employment relationships. National laws transposing the directive, including Estonia's and Lithuania's, repeat that ban.
Which employers have to report their gender pay gap?
Employers with 250 or more workers report annually, with the first report due by 7 June 2027. Employers with 150 to 249 workers report every three years from 7 June 2027, and those with 100 to 149 every three years from 7 June 2031. Member states may extend reporting to smaller employers.
Does the directive apply to a US company hiring in Europe?
It applies to employers in the public and private sectors for workers and applicants covered by a member state's law. A US company hiring someone to work in an EU country should expect that country's transposing law to apply to that hire, whether it hires directly or through an employer of record.