On 7 June 2026, the EU Pay Transparency Directive comes into force across member states. Any organisation with employees in the EU will need to comply. 

This isn’t just about putting salary ranges on job adverts. The Directive demands a new level of transparency around how jobs are valued, how pay is set and how pay progresses. For many organisations, that means rethinking foundations across compensation and talent management. 

Our EU Pay Transparency Guide is designed to help you turn legal requirements into a practical roadmap. 

The guide translates the Directive into eight concrete steps so you can diagnose where you are today and build a realistic plan: 

• Step 1
  Create a flexible job architecture and job groupings 
  Build categories of jobs that reflect equal work and equal value so you can respond to employee information requests and run compliant analysis. 
  
  
• Step 2
  Put in place a robust, bias-free way to value jobs 
  Use objective, gender-neutral criteria (skills, effort, responsibility, working conditions) and job evaluation or classification to evidence job value. 
  
  
• Step 3
  Create pay structures aligned to equal work and equal value 
  Move beyond ad-hoc market pricing and link pay ranges to job groupings, so you can explain and justify differences in pay. 
  
  
• Step 4
  Make your pay principles visible 
  Define and share your pay philosophy, pay methodology and approach to pay transparency so employees understand how pay decisions are made. 
  
  
• Step 5
  Define, assess and share progression criteria 
  Clarify what it takes to move within and between roles, connect skills and performance to pay, and make progression criteria accessible to employees. 
  
  
• Step 6
  Ensure bias-free postings and recruitment processes 
  Make job titles and postings gender neutral and align structured assessments and interviews to clear, objective criteria. 
  
  
• Step 7
  Create, update and govern standardised job descriptions 
  Use job descriptions as the core data for job architecture, evaluation, pay, progression and recruitment, with clear governance and audit trails. 
  
  
• Step 8
  Align pay equity analysis and reporting to equal work and equal value 
  Prepare for new reporting obligations by building the capability to analyse pay by categories of workers and understand your risk areas early. 

If you are not already planning for the Directive, this guide will help you understand where to start and what “good” looks like.