Employment Law | Pay Progression and the EU Pay Transparency Directive

The European Union is moving towards a new era of workplace equality with its Pay Transparency Directive. This legislation aims to combat pay discrimination, improve pay progression and close the persistent gender pay gap across EU member states.

The latest data shows an overall EU gender pay gap of 12%, although there is significant variation between countries. Latvia has the highest gap at 19%, and Luxembourg has the lowest at -0.9% (showing that women outearn men).

A key aspect of the Directive that organisations need to pay attention to is its focus on pay progression, which plays a crucial role in achieving long-term pay equity.

Unstructured and unclear processes for awarding pay increases will likely be a key cause of the continuing EU gender pay gap.