Employers in the EU will be legally obliged to provide information about the initial pay level or salary range in job advertisements or at least before the job interview. This is part of the EU’s new pay transparency measures. When published in the EU’s Official Journal, it must be implemented in national law within three years (a deadline has yet to be set).
The key elements of this Directive include;
- Pay transparency for job-seekers
- Right to information for employees
- Reporting on gender pay gap
- Joint pay assessment
More information can be found on the European Commission website.
This initiative is aimed to help reduce the gender pay gap and it will also help jobseekers decide whether a job is worth applying for.
The Minister for Children and Equality in Ireland, Roderic O’Gorman, has not decided yet whether the pay transparency rule will only apply to companies with more than 100 employees (as proposed by the EU) or whether it will also apply to smaller employers.
Similar initiatives have been implemented in countries such as USA and Canada. For example, in January 2023, the state of California implemented salary transparency for employers who have 15 workers or more. Similarly in Canada, employers with more than 250 workers are obliged to publish pay ranges in 8 out of 10 states.
Written by Michelle Corry