Compliance without Clarity: The Nuances of EU Pay Transparency Implementation

Whilst the June 2026 deadline is now less than a year away, the implementation landscape remains fragmented and uncertain – some countries have published draft proposals and others have yet to release concrete legislative frameworks. This creates significant planning challenges for multinational employers. This article accompanies our newly launched EU Pay Transparency tracker and highlights the following distinct nuances and patterns in implementation that appear to be emerging: 

• countries likely to build on and leverage existing frameworks to integrate the Directive’s requirements, such as France, Spain and Portugal;
• countries taking a consultative and stake-holder driven approach to implementation, such as Belgium and Germany;
• countries where activity is at the early stages of implementation, such as Ireland, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden; and
• countries where activity remains minimal or delayed, such as Netherlands, Czech Republic, Denmark and Hungary.

There are evident cross-cutting themes across countries such as timing pressures, legislative uncertainty, recruitment transparency as a major shift and local cultural considerations. However, the central concern across all countries is the increased administrative burden, particularly how to implement meaningful pay transparency without creating disproportionate compliance costs. 

The bottom line is that multinational employers cannot afford to wait for final national legislation and should consider a “core plus flex” approach that is mindful of data content created for this purpose. Cautious preparation should begin by considering what steps may need to be taken based on the Directive’s minimum core requirements with flexibility built in for country variations as they emerge. Exploring initial steps with the benefit of legal privilege is recommended.

While the transposition process may, on certain specific issues, differ from one member state to another and even be delayed beyond the deadline of 7 June 2026, the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value is already firmly established in EU law and the Directive’s goal is to ensure its actual enforcement. Employers should get a head start by screening their hiring processes and policies to ensure compliance with the Directive’s transparency and information obligations, as well as analysing their job classifications carefully for any unjustified pay ranges.
 

Countries likely to build on existing frameworks:  

France and Spain are positioned to leverage well-established gender equality reporting systems, although both still require enhancements to meet the Directive’s requirements. 

🔴France

France already has a well-developed framework on gender equality reporting, through the Index de l’égalité professionnelle (mandatory for employers with at least 50 employees). The Index requires companies to publish annual scores based on pay gap indicators, promotion rates and return from maternity leave, with corrective measures and potential financial penalties for non-compliance.

It is expected that the French government will build on this existing framework rather than create an entirely new system. However, certain adjustments will be necessary to align with the Directive’s enhanced rights of access to pay information and obligations on pay transparency in recruitment. There is currently no draft legislation in France and no information available on a potential legislative agenda as yet. 

🔴Spain

Certain pay transparency obligations under the Directive already exist in Spain since 2019-2020, including equal pay for work of equal value and gender pay gap reporting.  However, the Directive will introduce changes in domestic law, including pay transparency during the recruitment process (currently non-existent in Spain), prohibition on asking about a candidate’s pay history, defining internal rules for pay levels and progression, a lower gender pay gap reporting threshold (from 25% to 5%), and extended limitation periods for pay discrimination claims (from one year to a minimum of three years). No draft bill has been published yet in Spain, though implementation is reportedly on the government's near-term agenda.

🔴Portugal

Portugal also has an existing pay transparency and pay reporting framework, under which the Labour Inspectorate can (following analysis of the Single Report) order employers to explain any apparent pay gap and submit a remuneration policy aimed at removing any differences. It is therefore likely that Portugal will develop a legal framework implementing the Directive that is based on this existing law. 

No draft bills have been disclosed to implement the Directive yet. However, in May 2024 the Committee for Gender Equality (CITE) revealed that it had been appointed to coordinate the Directive’s transposition procedure. A working group was set up for this purpose, comprising several other entities, which should be meeting on a monthly basis to identify the required legislative changes.

Countries taking a consultative approach: 

🔴Belgium

Belgium’s transposition discussions centre on social partner negotiations, with discussions ongoing between worker and employer representative organisations via a (national) collective bargaining agreement. Since Belgium already has a (somewhat) different reporting obligation on the gender pay gap, a new legal framework will be required that is compliant with the Directive.  Employers are seeking feasible and cost-efficient transposition – a concern that is shared by the current Minister of Work and the leading faction in Parliament. Under these circumstances, it is becoming increasingly uncertain whether transposition into national law will be achieved by the 7 June 2026 deadline.  

🔴Germany

The German federal government has established an eleven-expert commission tasked with developing proposals for efficient and bureaucracy-free implementation. The commission is expected to deliver recommendations to the Federal Ministry for Gender Equality by the end of October 2025.  The formal legislative process should then be initiated quickly, with a draft bill anticipated before Christmas and the legislative process expected to be completed before the 2026 summer recess.  At this stage, details about the draft bill's content are unknown.

Countries in early stages of implementation:

🟠Ireland 

Ireland does not yet have draft legislation, but Heads of Bill are currently being drafted to transpose key elements of the Directive into Irish law. Remaining elements of the Directive are due to be implemented on a piece-meal basis by amendments to existing legislation.  Given the early stage of drafting, full implementation of the Directive could be close to the June 2026 deadline.

🟠Sweden

Last year, the government passed a preparatory investigation regarding the directive, but the final bill has not yet been published on how the Directive will be implemented nationally.  The Equality Ombudsman (Diskrimineringsombudsmannen) has been assigned to develop a technical solution for employers to submit required data to the authority. No final bill has been published and in the absence of a final bill, employers should focus on ensuring full compliance with existing legal obligations relating to pay surveys.

🟠Slovakia

In Slovakia, transposition of the Directive is already underway at government level in the inter-ministerial comment procedure, and a Bill already exists. The proposed date for the Bill to come into effect is currently set for 1 June 2026, although this could change during the legislative process, as may the text of the Bill itself.

Countries with minimal or delayed progress:

🟠Finland

A tripartite working group was established by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, and published its draft proposal for national implementation of the Directive on 16 May 2025. However, preparation has been delayed, and the Finnish government is currently preparing its official proposal. The estimated week of presentation to Parliament is 51/2025 instead of the original 39/2025. 

The Directive is intended to be implemented at a minimum level and primarily by amending the Act on Equality between Women and Men. The amendments are anticipated to come into force on 18 May 2026. 

🟠Netherlands

The Minister of Social Affairs and Employment recently announced that implementation of the Directive in the Netherlands will be delayed until 1 January 2027 (beyond the 7 June 2026 deadline).  With elections imminent, priorities may shift, but if the delay in implementation proceeds, international companies operating in the Netherlands would not face reporting obligations until 2028 (covering the calendar year 2027).  This raises the question of whether the European Commission will (or can) impose sanctions for not reporting before that time when there is no binding national law outlining exact obligations. 

🔴Czech Republic

The Czech Republic’s gender pay gap of up to 18% significantly exceeds EU standards, which makes the Directive’s implementation particularly relevant.  However, upcoming parliamentary elections potentially risk creating implementation and legislative delays. As a draft bill has not yet been made public, Czech employers have no clear guidance on specific compliance requirements and will likely face considerable time pressure to prepare once legislation emerges.

🔴Denmark

No bill has been proposed yet in Denmark and there is little government communication or news on the topic. It is expected that implementation in Denmark will mirror the Directive's wording and employer preparations should be based on the Directive's content. The primary concern for Danish employers is the significant administrative burden when the Directive is implemented under Danish law.

🔴Italy

The Italian parliament has delegated the government to pass a legislative decree, aimed at implementing the Directive by 7 June 2026, but no final bill has been passed. The government will identify tools for assessing the value of work (involving social partners), extend obligations relating to accessibility and communicating information on the pay gap to a wider audience, and explore automatic information gathering from existing administrative data (such as monthly social security submissions) to minimise administrative obligations for businesses.

🔴Poland

On 24 December 2025, new rules are expected to enter into force that introduce a partial and limited implementation of certain aspects of the Directive – namely a remuneration transparency obligation, but almost exclusively at the recruitment stage.  The requirement to ensure job advertisements and job titles are gender-neutral will be a practical issue in Poland as the Polish language is very gender-based and gender-neutral forms often sound artificial. 

Despite the above, a number of obligations in the Directive have not yet been addressed and a draft bill implementing those obligations has not yet been disclosed.

🔴Hungary

In Hungary, no draft bill has been proposed or published yet. As there is an election coming up in April 2026, it is expected that Hungary will implement the Directive around the implementation deadline of 7 June 2026. This is also suggested by the response from the Ministry of National Economy to formal inquiries by MPs. Hungary is among the EU member states where the gender pay gap is the largest and there is no current gender pay gap legislation which the legislator can build on when implementing the Directive. Therefore, it is expected that implementation will result in the amendment of various existing acts as well as the introduction of new ones.

Note: The colour coding used in this article aligns with the key used in our tracker map and the commentary and data above is drafted as of 7 October 2025.