France

Tracker Status

Initial steps taken / early stages of implementation

Implementation Status

A meeting was held on 15 January 2026 between the Ministry of Labour and trade unions to progress the Directive’s implementation. The Ministry specified the administrative penalties to be imposed by labour authorities if employers fail to comply with the Directive’s obligations. This distinguishes between two situations:

• Failure to comply with obligations relating to the new version of the gender pay gap: an administrative fine of up to 1% of total payroll.
• Failure to comply with new information obligations arising from the Directive: a fixed administrative fine of €450 per breach.

A further meeting was initially scheduled for 29 January 2026 and a first draft of the bill was expected to be presented to trade unions, however this did not materialise. In any case, France is not expected to meet the June 2026 implementation deadline. 

However, the Ministry of Labour added that employers will be required to indicate a “salary range” in their job postings, but without the legislation imposing a maximum range, leading to a possible significant difference between the lower and upper ends of the salary range communicated to job applicants.

It also specified that the first declaration of the new gender equality index formula would take place “before 1 June 2027” via a dedicated portal.

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