Pay transparency: deadline passed, duties coming

The EU pay transparency directive had to be transposed into national law by 7 June 2026. Austria let that deadline pass – an implementing act exists so far only as a draft. For employers this is not an all-clear, but a period of grace.

What the directive requires

• Salary information before the interview: applicants are entitled to information on the starting pay or its range – and may no longer be asked about their previous salary.
• Information rights for employees: on their own pay and the average pay levels of comparable groups, broken down by gender.
• Pay reports: staggered by company size, starting with larger employers; an unexplained gender pay gap above five percent triggers mandatory pay assessments.
• Shift of the burden of proof: in disputes over pay discrimination, the employer will have to prove that it does not discriminate.

Why waiting can become expensive

Once the transposition deadline has passed, employees may in certain cases rely directly on sufficiently precise provisions of the directive; moreover, the coming act will hardly be milder than the directive itself. Anyone who starts analysing their pay structure only after promulgation will be under time pressure – reliable pay data and a comprehensible evaluation system cannot be built in weeks.

Sensible preparation

Survey pay structures now, form comparison groups, identify unexplained differences and adapt job-posting processes. All of this is possible without the statutory text – the directive sets the direction bindingly. We handle the legal side of this analysis and the design of the future processes.