EU Pay Transparency Directive update
HR Dept
You’d be forgiven if you missed it over those long, hot summer’s days, but Ireland failed to implement the EU Pay Transparency Directive by the EU’s June 7th deadline. We were not alone in this among EU member states. Instead, the government has said it will deliver a phased approach.
This means there will be work for SMEs to do in due course, so let’s take a look at what the directive requires.
What is the EU Pay Transparency Directive trying to achieve?
The ultimate goal of the directive is to reduce gender pay disparities, which have been persistent across developed economies.
Ireland has been making progress towards this with its own gender pay gap reporting in recent years. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the mean gender pay gap has fallen from 8.5% in 2022 to 3.5% in 2025.
Likely pay transparency changes on the horizon
Building on the gender pay gap reporting that is in place for employers with headcounts of 50+, there are a number of other compliance measures that we may expect to see. That said, the Irish government has not finalised its legislation.
Pre-recruitment
When hiring it is expected that you will be obligated to provide salary information or ranges prior to interview. Even in job adverts pay information may need to be included that goes further than “competitive salary”. Attention may fall upon gendered language in job adverts with neutral wording for job titles etc. required.
In the interview, you may be banned from asking a candidate about their salary history.
Post-recruitment
For staff already employed, it is likely they will be able to ask for information about their own pay level and average pay levels for workers performing the same roles or roles of equal value.
There may also be a restriction on the ability to contractually prevent employees discussing their pay with others.
Next steps for SMEs
As said, these changes were meant to have happened in summer 2026. They are only delayed but not dismissed, so it is sensible to start preparing for them.
A useful place to start would be to conduct a pay audit within your business so that you understand if you have a problem to address and, if so, how large it is.
If you don’t have salary range already, this would be another place to begin work. Some employers will rely heavily on manager discretion when setting pay, but setting salary ranges provides greater structure. Are there objective measures on which you base salary variations – things like experience, qualifications, performance and extra responsibilities?
A review of your recruitment processes will help too, encompassing wording of job interviews and your bank of job interview questions to see how compliant they are with the expected rules.
Help from The HR Dept
The final changes are not confirmed, but we will keep you posted. If, in the meantime you would like assistance performing a pay audit or any other related action, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
