Pay transparency in Austria
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Pay information requests Pending
Upper Austria regional public service: own pay level plus sex-disaggregated average pay levels for the same/equal-value group, initially via a workers' representative or equality body. Styria regional public service: own pay information and average pay of the relevant employee group, broken down by sex, via the Styrian Equal Treatment Commissioner.
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Time to respond 2 months (Upper Austria and Styria regional public-service routes)
Every request starts a clock. Answering one needs pay structures and equal-value groupings that already exist.
Austria’s move on the EU Pay Transparency Directive is a partial one so far. The country has enacted only one piece of it: the public procurement consequences described in Article 24 of the Directive. The core employer-facing rules, the ones that would set out pay information rights, reporting, and joint pay assessments, are still being prepared.
The enacted measure is the Vergaberechtsgesetz 2026. Its official explanatory memorandum describes it as implementing Article 24, meaning it deals with procurement-related consequences, not the Directive’s broader employment-law package.
For HR and compensation teams, this means the practical questions, whether employees will get a right to pay information, whether job postings will need salary ranges, and whether salary history questions will be restricted, have not been defined yet. Austria has taken a narrow first step, not the full transposition.
The measure
- Law or measure
- Federal procurement transposition plus enacted Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Styria public-sector Directive measures; nationwide private-sector core transposition remains pending
- Core obligations start
- Federal procurement provisions in force from 1 March 2026; Upper Austria regional public-service pay-transparency provisions are retroactively effective from 7 June 2026; Styria Land reporting duties from 1 July 2026 and Styria equality/municipal-reporting duties from 22 July 2026; Lower Austria regional measure enacted 3 June 2026; nationwide private-sector core obligations pending.
- Who is covered
- Mixed: nationwide pre-existing private-sector job-ad and >150 income-report duties; federal procurement limb; enacted Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Styria public-sector measures; nationwide Directive core private-sector package pending.
What the law requires
- Pay range before the interview Source for: Pay range before the interview
- Gap reporting from 100 employees Source for: Gap reporting from 100 employees
- Joint pay assessment at a 5.0% gap Source for: Joint pay assessment at a 5.0% gap
2 further dimensions are still being verified against official sources.
How Austria differs from the Directive
Austria combines a pre-existing nationwide private-sector job-ad minimum-pay rule and >150 biennial income reports, federal Directive Article 24 procurement implementation, and enacted public-sector Directive measures in Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Styria. Upper Austria now has live regional recruitment, worker-information, reporting and 5%/six-month JPA rules. The nationwide private-sector Directive core package remains pending.
What this means for employers
Because only the procurement limb is in force, Austrian employers do not yet face binding pay transparency duties from this measure. The Vergaberechtsgesetz 2026 changes affect public contracting processes, not everyday HR practices like job postings, pay bands, or gap reporting. Treat it as a sign that Austria is moving toward fuller transposition, not as something that changes your day-to-day obligations right now.
- Watch for the employment-law bill: the next milestone is publication of the core employment-law transposition bill, which will set out the actual rules on pay information, salary ranges, and reporting.
- Don’t over-read the procurement amendment: it implements Article 24 only and does not activate employer-facing pay transparency duties like reporting or joint pay assessments.
- Keep the existing equal-treatment framework in view: it continues to apply in Austria alongside the new procurement rules.
- Plan for guidance, not deadlines yet: follow updates from the Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection, which is the competent authority.
Enforcement and open questions
- Competent authority
- Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection; procurement authorities for the federal Article 24 limb; Styrian Equal Treatment Commissioner for the regional employee-information and municipal-reporting functions
- Equality body
- Ombud for Equal Treatment (Gleichbehandlungsanwaltschaft); regional equality bodies/commissioners operate within Länder public-service regimes
- What could still change
- High scope-fragmentation risk: official 2026 measures exist at federal procurement and subnational public-sector levels, now including Upper Austria alongside Lower Austria and Styria, while the main nationwide private-sector Directive transposition has not been published. Upper Austria's Directive-specific provisions were promulgated 30 July 2026 but are retroactively effective from 7 June 2026. Do not generalise regional thresholds, deadlines, salary-history, information or JPA rules to all Austrian employers.
Common questions
Has Austria implemented the EU Pay Transparency Directive?
Only partly. Austria has enacted the Vergaberechtsgesetz 2026, which implements Article 24 of the Directive, covering public-procurement consequences. The core employment-law obligations, including pay information rights, salary ranges, and reporting, have not yet been transposed.
Do Austrian employers have to comply with pay transparency rules yet?
Not from this measure. The enacted provisions apply to public procurement, not to general employer obligations. There is currently no reporting model or compliance deadline in place for employers generally.
What is the Vergaberechtsgesetz 2026?
It is the Austrian law that brought Article 24 of the EU Pay Transparency Directive into force, dealing with procurement-related consequences. Its official explanatory memorandum describes it as implementing that specific Directive article, not the Directive's broader employment-law package.
Which Austrian authority oversees pay transparency?
The Federal Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection is the competent authority, with procurement authorities handling the procurement limb specifically. The Ombud for Equal Treatment, the Gleichbehandlungsanwaltschaft, is Austria's equality body.
What should Austrian employers watch for next?
The next milestone is publication of the core employment-law transposition bill. Until that appears, employers should not treat the procurement amendments as activating pay transparency duties such as employee pay information rights or gap reporting.
- Pay information request right Art. 7(1)
- Pending
- Response deadline Art. 7(4)
- 2 months (Upper Austria and Styria regional public-service routes)
- Salary range in recruitment Art. 5(1)
- Yes
- Joint pay assessment trigger Art. 10(1)
- 5.0%
Upper Austria regional public service: own pay level plus sex-disaggregated average pay levels for the same/equal-value group, initially via a workers' representative or equality body. Styria regional public service: own pay information and average pay of the relevant employee group, broken down by sex, via the Styrian Equal Treatment Commissioner.
Upper Austria and Styria provide live regional public-service worker information routes; no nationwide private-sector Directive Article 7 right is yet enacted.
Read the sourceThe employer must answer in writing within this period.
Two-month response period now verified in both Upper Austria and Styria regional public-service routes; not a nationwide private-sector SLA.
Read the sourceApplicants receive the pay or pay range before the interview, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria.
Austria already had a nationwide private-sector minimum-remuneration disclosure duty in job advertisements before Directive 2023/970; the 2026 Länder measures add/adjust covered regional public-service rules.
Read the sourceThe unjustified gap that obliges the employer and worker representatives to assess pay together.
Upper Austria regional public-service JPA trigger is 5% or more in a worker category, cumulatively with lack of objective gender-neutral justification and failure to remedy within six months. This replaces the prior country-level 'No national JPA trigger identified' conclusion but does not imply nationwide private-sector coverage.
Read the sourceStill being verified against official sources: salary history questions banned.
- Reporting threshold
- 100 employees
- Reporting model
- Pre-existing national reporting Operational data-production and filing model for pay-gap reporting: employer-calculated, authority-calculated, hybrid, proposed, pre-existing or absent.
- First report, 250 or more employees
- Existing biennial GlBG cycle; Upper Austria and Styria regional Directive-specific 250+ reports: first due 7 June 2027
- First report, 100 to 149 employees
- 7 June 2031 (Upper Austria and Styria regional public-sector employers with 100-149 only)
- Metrics required
- Different / modified Art. 9(1): Seven metrics: mean gap; variable-component gap; median gap; median variable gap; variable-pay participation by sex; quartile distribution by sex; category-level gap split basic and variable.
- Pre-existing regime
- Existing GlBG already requires gender-neutral job ads with minimum-remuneration disclosure nationwide and biennial anonymised income reports for employers with more than 150 employees; these duties predate Directive 2023/970.
- Formal transposition stage
- Partly in force
- Scope
- Mixed
Next milestone
Maintain live GlBG and Länder public-sector duties. Upper Austria 250+ and 150-249 regional reports are first due 7 June 2027; 100-149 reports are first due 7 June 2031. Continue monitoring for publication of the nationwide private-sector core transposition bill.
Primary sources
- Federal procurement transposition plus enacted Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Styria public-sector Directive measures; nationwide private-sector core transposition remains pending Primary source, checked 10 September 2026
- Formal transposition stage Partly in force · in force · high confidence
- Core employer obligations Not operational · in force · high confidence
- Transposition scope Mixed · in force · high confidence
- Salary range in recruitment Yes · pre existing · high confidence
- Salary history questions banned Partial / conditional · in force · high confidence
- Pay information request right Partial / conditional · in force · high confidence
- Response deadline 2 months (Upper Austria and Styria regional public-service routes) · in force · high confidence
- Reporting threshold 100 · in force · high confidence
- First report, 250 or more employees Existing biennial GlBG cycle; Upper Austria and Styria regional Directive-specific 250+ reports: first due 7 June 2027 · in force · high confidence
- First report, 100 to 149 employees 7 June 2031 (Upper Austria and Styria regional public-sector employers with 100-149 only) · in force · high confidence
- Reporting model Pre-existing national reporting · pre existing · high confidence
- Joint pay assessment trigger 5 · in force · high confidence
- Info reference period Unclear · unclear · high confidence
- Info pay basis Unclear · unclear · high confidence
- Info pay components scope Unclear · unclear · high confidence
- Info request frequency Unclear · unclear · high confidence
- Info employee reference period eligibility Employee-information rights are currently regional/public-sector only, including Upper Austria and Styria; no nationwide private-sector Directive Article 7 right is in force. · in force · high confidence
- Info normalisation method Unclear · unclear · high confidence
- Reporting reference period Multiple / mixed · in force · high confidence
- Reporting pay basis Actual remuneration paid / earned · in force · high confidence
- Reporting pay components scope Multiple / mixed · in force · high confidence
- Reporting population basis Regime-specific: pre-existing private-sector income reports classify employees by collective/company employment groups; Upper Austria regional reporting covers the relevant Land/municipal public-service workforce and same/equal-value groups defined by equal classification within the applicable remuneration scheme; Styria municipal reporting covers municipal employees/pay quartiles. · in force · high confidence
- Reporting normalisation method Regime-specific: pre-existing private and federal public reporting normalise part-time remuneration to full-time and partial-year employment to a full year; Upper Austria defines pay level as gross annual remuneration plus the corresponding gross hourly remuneration for employee information and reporting; exact Styria municipal methodology may differ. · in force · high confidence
- Employer required input data Historical remuneration/payroll, sex, employment group/classification, FTE or part-time status and employment-period data remain necessary under existing Austrian regimes. Covered Upper Austria public bodies additionally need individual and sex-disaggregated same/equal-value-group pay levels, base monthly pay, supplementary/variable remuneration, variable-pay participation and quartile/category data sufficient for the regional report and 5% JPA test; covered Styria bodies retain their regional data needs. · in force · high confidence
- First data period needed Ongoing legacy reporting already requires prior/calendar-year remuneration data; no single nationwide Directive-specific first period applies. · in force · high confidence
- Own pay information Partial / conditional · in force · high confidence
- Comparator information Partial / conditional · in force · high confidence
- Comparator information start 7 Jun 2026 (Upper Austria regional public service; Styria regional public service from 22 Jul 2026) · in force · high confidence
Change history
Recent updates
Upper Austria enacts regional public-service pay-transparency rules
Upper Austria has enacted a Directive 2023/970 implementation for its Land and municipal public service.
This page is maintained by Evenpay from official primary sources and reviewed before publication. It is general information, not legal advice. Requirements vary by member state and change as national laws progress; figures described as proposed are subject to amendment.
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