Pay gap transparency

The Council of the EU, made up of ministers from national governments, has reached a common position on a proposed new directive on greater pay transparency to tackle the gender pay gap, first published by the European Commission in March 2021.

Last month, a meeting of the Council agreed that employee representatives should have the right to receive greater pay information, broken down by sex. In organisations with at least 250 employees, employers must provide annual statistics on the pay gap between male and female employees, with the information going both to national authorities and to employee representatives.

Where there is a pay gap of more than 5% and this cannot be justified on objective grounds, employers must conduct a joint assessment with employee representatives.

These proposals fall well short of the European Trade Union Confederation’s demands, which call for a much lower threshold for annual reporting, fewer restrictions on the information to be provided and a stronger union role.

The directive must now be negotiated with the European Parliament which has not yet agreed its position.

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2021/12/06/council-agrees-on-common-position-to-tackle-gender-pay-gap