Hiring laws in Europe: salary transparency requirements

Equality has been a core focus of hiring laws in Europe for decades, in two key ways: discrimination and equal pay. 

However, these laws are currently fairly general – they make it illegal to discriminate and illegal to pay people unfairly, but without specific requirements for how employers must comply with this within the hiring process.

This will change with the implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive by June 2026.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive includes specific requirements on salary transparency in the hiring process – listing salary ranges in job postings, using gender neutral language for job descriptions, banning employers from asking candidates their salary history, and switching the burden of proof in employment tribunals to the employer.

In this article we’ll take a closer look at existing hiring laws, how they will change when the EU Pay Transparency Directive comes into force, and how employers can prepare for this.

Current hiring laws in Europe: salary transparency requirements

The vast majority of European countries already include equality in their hiring laws to an extent, with two important inclusions:

• Discrimination in hiring is illegal. Most European countries have existing hiring laws that make it illegal for employers to discriminate against protected characteristics when hiring – characteristics like gender, age, sexual orientation, or religion.
• Equal pay is a legal requirement. Equal pay is enshrined in law across Europe: the requirement to provide all employees with equal pay for equal work (or work of equal value), regardless of gender or other protected characteristics. In many cases, employers are required to report on their gender pay gap to promote compliance with this.

However, salary transparency during hiring is not currently a legal requirement in Europe.

Is it legal to ask job candidates for their salary history in Europe?

Yes, it is currently legal for employers in Europe (including the UK) to ask job candidates for their salary history during the hiring process.

However, it will become illegal with the rollout of the EU Pay Transparency Directive by June 2026, as the Directive includes a ban on salary history questions (see section below: ‘How will the EU Pay Transparency Directive impact hiring laws?’ for more information on this).

Do employers have to disclose the salary range for a role in Europe?

No, employers do not currently have to disclose the salary range when hiring for a new role in Europe (including the UK). 

However, disclosing the salary range for new roles will become a legal requirement with the rollout of the EU Pay Transparency Directive by June 2026 (see section below: ‘How will the EU Pay Transparency Directive impact hiring laws?’ for more information on this).

Examples of existing hiring equality laws in Europe

🇫🇷 In France:

• Preventing discrimination is a core principle of the French Labour Code, with Article L.1132-1 stating that employers must not discriminate against any one of 25 listed protected characteristics in any workplace procedures which, of course, includes the recruitment process. 
• Equal pay has been a requirement since the 1972 equal pay law, this makes it mandatory for employees to provide equal pay for men and women who perform equal work or work of equal value. Since 2018 employers with 50+ employees have had to prove equal pay, measuring their gender pay gap using five key indicators, calculating their overall score in the 100-point Gender Equality Index, and sharing this information publicly. However, there is nothing specifically related to hiring processes within this. 

🇩🇪 In Germany:

• Preventing discrimination is included in German law through the General Act on Equal Treament (AGG) – also known as the Anti-Discrimination Act – which makes discrimination in the workplace illegal, including within hiring processes.
• Equal pay has been enforced through the Transparency in Wage Structures Act since 2018. This includes employees being allowed to share salary information with each other, and a requirement for employers with 500+ employees to report annually on equal pay. However, again, there is nothing specifically related to hiring processes within this. 

🇸🇪 In Sweden:

• Preventing discrimination is a core purpose of the Discrimination Act, which has been in place since 2008, and includes recruitment processes.
• Equal pay is also included within the Discrimination Act, with a requirement to ensure gender balance within job functions and levels, as well as mandatory gender pay gap reporting for all employers with 10+ employees. However, once more, there is nothing specifically related to hiring processes within this. 

🇬🇧 In the UK:

• Preventing discrimination is the focus of the 2010 Equality Act, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against people with protected characteristics, including within recruitment.
• Equal pay is also enshrined in law through the 2010 Equality Act. Employees who feel they do not receive equal pay can make a claim to an employment tribunal if they are able to gather evidence on a ‘comparator’ i.e. a colleague who performs equal work or work of equal value and who receives higher compensation. However, again, there is nothing specifically related to hiring processes within this. 
• Interestingly, the UK government did implement a pay transparency pilot focused on hiring processes in 2022 – with participating companies required to disclose the salary range for all new job roles within the job posting, and banned from asking candidates about their salary history. However, this pilot was abandoned in 2024 due to other priorities and a desire to learn from other countries implementing pay transparency (highly likely to be a reference to the EU Pay Transparency Directive). 

As we can see from the examples outlined above, existing discrimination and equal pay laws in Europe do not include requirements related to salary transparency during the recruitment process.

Why is salary transparency important in hiring laws?

It’s very difficult to enforce equal pay laws and eliminate bias during hiring and salary negotiations without salary transparency.

Employers and job candidates can’t identify when differences in salary are occurring as a result of gender discrimination, especially because it’s often caused by unconscious bias. 

Pay transparency laws are crucial to bring to light those inconsistencies. 

The USA has already been leading the way on pay transparency laws in states such as California and New York – with those pay transparency laws including requirements to disclose salary ranges in job postings and not to ask candidates about their salary history.

The European Union is now following suit, with the introduction of the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

Plus, on top of this, there are also a lot of benefits for companies too:

• Access to better and/or better-matched talent – many job seekers will not apply to roles that don’t advertise a salary range
• Better matching of candidates to job openings will reduce wasted time throughout the entire application process – especially when it comes to job offer negotiations, as you’ll be starting from a shared understanding
• Pay transparency and a culture of openness about pay has been shown to increase trust amongst employees, who are able to see that their pay has been fairly calculated, which is a key factor for retaining talent
• Research has shown that more varied teams make better business decisions and lead to better performance, so increasing transparency and reducing discrimination is only positive for your business’ bottom line
• Companies who take the opportunity to re-evaluate their practices and find new ways to further improve pay transparency and equity will set themselves apart from the competition and enhance their reputation as desirable employers – it could be huge for your employer brand.

How will the EU Pay Transparency Directive impact hiring laws?

The EU Pay Transparency Directive explicitly includes salary transparency requirements for job applicants prior to employment, largely through Article 5. 

There are four key changes to be aware of in terms of hiring processes:

• Salary range disclosure 
• Gender neutral job descriptions
• Salary history ban
• Employer burden of proof in employment tribunals.

Salary range disclosure in the EU Pay Transparency Directive 

The EU Pay Transparency Directive makes it mandatory for all EU employers (companies based in EU member states or with employees in those states) to disclose the salary range when hiring for a new job position – which must be determined using objective and gender neutral criteria. 

The salary range must be disclosed in advance of any salary negotiations taking place, with the wording suggesting that employers should include the salary range within the job description or make it available to candidates before interview. 

Employers must also disclose any applicable collective agreements for the job position – which is relevant for countries like Sweden where collective bargaining agreements are a key part of salary negotiations. 

Gender neutral job descriptions in the EU Pay Transparency Directive 

The EU Pay Transparency Directive requires employers to use gender neutral language in all job descriptions, including for job titles.

Salary history ban in the EU Pay Transparency Directive  

The EU Pay Transparency Directive includes a salary history ban – employers will no longer be able to ask job applicants about their salary history during the hiring process.

Employer burden of proof for employment tribunals in the EU Pay Transparency Directive

The EU Transparency Directive shifts the burden of proof for employment tribunals from employee to employer – outlined in Chapter 3, Article 18 of the Directive. 

It’s currently the norm in employment tribunals for discriminatory practices (including equal pay issues) for the burden of proof to be on the employee, meaning that the employee must provide sufficient evidence to prove that discrimination has taken place. 

This will no longer be the case for pay discrimination cases once the EU Pay Transparency Directive is in force – employers will have to provide evidence that pay discrimination did not take place to be acquitted.

How to prepare for these hiring law changes

Most employers will need to make adjustments to their hiring processes in order to be compliant with the EU Pay Transparency Directive once it is fully implemented in all EU member states by June 2026.

The key steps to take are: 

• Ensure gender neutral language is used in all job adverts, job descriptions, and any other hiring documentation.
• Update the hiring process to include the requirement to include sharing the salary range and applicable collective agreements with all candidates, which must be before any salary conversations or negotiations begin.
• Ensure ‘objective’ and ‘gender neutral’ criteria are used to determine the salary range for each new job position – this will likely mean revisiting the core components of your compensation strategy (job architecture, level framework, career framework, salary bands) to ensure an objective approach is in place for making salary range decisions.
• Ensure interview guidelines include the requirement to never ask candidates about their salary history – and brief all hiring managers on this requirement. 
• Remove pay secrecy clauses from any employment contract templates – this may also mean creating new contracts for existing employees.

If you’re not sure where to start, a compensation tool like Ravio can help you to implement a logical and objective approach to compensation based on real-time market benchmarking data, and to identify and fix pay equity issues. Book a demo to get further advice from our expert team.