Member states had until 7 June 2026 to turn the EU Pay Transparency Directive, Directive (EU) 2023/970, into national law. Four months on, most have not finished. Italy, Malta, Slovakia and Lithuania have complete laws. Poland has applied part of the rules since December 2025. The Netherlands and France have bills in parliament, Spain has a draft decree, and Germany has not yet published a draft.
For employers that sounds like breathing room. It is less than it looks.
Where the main countries stand on 1 October 2026
| Country | Status | What applies now |
|---|---|---|
| Italy | Legislative Decree 96 of 7 May 2026, in force since 7 June 2026 | The national rules apply |
| Poland | Labour Code amendment in force since 24 December 2025; the act for the rest is a government draft, with cabinet approval planned for the fourth quarter of 2026 | Pay information for job candidates and no questions about current pay |
| Netherlands | Bill 36949 sent to parliament on 21 May 2026; plenary debate scheduled for 7 December 2026; intended start 1 January 2027 | The existing equal treatment rules |
| France | Bill no. 944 filed in the Senate on 10 September 2026, under the accelerated procedure | The existing gender equality index |
| Spain | Draft royal decree amending Royal Decree 902/2020, public consultation in August 2026 | The existing pay register and pay audit rules |
| Germany | No draft yet; on 16 July 2026 the government said it was still clarifying individual questions | The Entgelttransparenzgesetz of 2017 |
Why waiting for your national law is risky
A directive that has not been transposed does not, as a rule, create obligations for private employers directly. But courts have to read national equal pay law in line with it as far as they can, and the right to equal pay for work of equal value has been in the EU treaties for decades. More practically, the work the directive asks for takes months, and the first deadlines are close.
- The first gender pay gap reports for employers with 150 or more workers are due by 7 June 2027 under the directive, covering 2026. Where a country is late, its own law sets the date, but the data for 2026 is being created now.
- Pay ranges before hiring and the ban on asking candidates about their pay history are simple to introduce and already apply in Italy and Poland.
- Objective, gender-neutral pay criteria need a job evaluation behind them. Without one, you cannot show that two jobs are or are not of equal value, which is the question every request for information and every pay gap report comes back to.
What to prepare now, whatever your country
- Group jobs into categories of equal value, using skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
- Calculate the pay gap per category, for basic pay and for variable pay separately, mean and median. Look for any category where the gap is 5% or more and you cannot explain it with objective criteria: under the directive, that triggers a joint pay assessment with workers' representatives if it is not fixed within six months.
- Write down how pay and progression are set, in language a worker can find and understand.
- Prepare for requests. Workers will be able to ask for their own pay level and the average pay, by sex, of colleagues doing the same work or work of equal value, with an answer due within two months.
The full list of obligations, with the reporting dates by company size, is in our guide to the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The voluntary sustainability standard asks for the gender pay gap where the law already requires you to report it, so once your national law applies, the same calculation serves your VSME report.
Joost Thissen
