Pay transparency in Bulgaria
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Pay information requests Proposed
Own remuneration plus sex-disaggregated average remuneration for workers doing the same work or work of equal value; where disclosure risks identifying another worker's individual pay, information is routed via the enterprise union and/or Commission for Protection against Discrimination.
In the published draft, not yet in force.
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Time to respond 2 months initially; 14 days for justified clarification (proposed)
Every request starts a clock. Answering one needs pay structures and equal-value groupings that already exist.
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Salary history questions are banned
Applicants learn the pay range before the interview, and employers may not ask what they earn today.
Bulgaria is still at the draft stage of implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The government published draft amendments to the Protection against Discrimination Act, which would carry the directive’s requirements into national law, and ran a public consultation on the text in May and June 2026.
No final, enacted measure has been identified yet. That means the core employer obligations you’ll eventually need to meet, like pay information rights, salary ranges in job postings, and gender pay gap reporting, are proposed but not yet in force.
The proposed scope is nationwide and covers both public and private employment. Until Parliament adopts a final version, treat everything in the draft as subject to change.
The measure
- Law or measure
- Government-approved draft amending the Protection against Discrimination Act, National Assembly bill 167545 / 52-602-01-42; lead committee recommended first-reading approval on 1 October 2026. No plenary vote or promulgation is recorded in the live dossier checked 4 November.
- Core obligations start
- Day of State Gazette promulgation (proposed), except reporting/JPA §§4-5: 7 Jun 2027 for 150+ and 7 Jun 2031 for 100-149
- Who is covered
- Proposed nationwide rules cover public and private employment. Core recruitment/information rules apply across employers; pay-gap reporting/JPA applies from 100 employees with staged commencement, and temporary-agency workers assigned to the undertaking are included for reporting headcount.
What the law requires
- Pay range before the interview Source for: Pay range before the interview
- Salary history questions banned Source for: Salary history questions banned
- Pay information requests, 2 months initially; 14 days for justified clarification (proposed) to respond Source for: Pay information requests, 2 months initially; 14 days for justified clarification (proposed) to respond
- 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
How Bulgaria differs from the Directive
Filed bill 52-602-01-42 proposes initial basic pay or its range, fixed additional pay and collective-agreement information, but Article 12(4) specifies no disclosure form or timing and no mandatory job-ad publication. Gender-neutral job titles retain a statutory-classification exception. Article 14a gives two months for initial information and 14 days for clarification; annual rights notice is due by 31 January. Reporting covers seven metrics; an unjustified 5% category gap unresolved after six months triggers joint assessment, followed by a separate one-year remedy period.
What this means for employers
Because Bulgaria’s rules are still a draft, you are not yet legally required to act. But the direction is clear enough that waiting until a final law appears is risky, especially since several specific rules (the pay information right, salary range requirements, and any salary history ban) haven’t been confirmed in detail yet.
- Track the consultation outcome: the draft went through public consultation in 2026, and revisions are possible before adoption.
- Start mapping your recruitment process: if a salary-range disclosure rule is confirmed, you’ll want job postings and interview scripts ready to adjust.
- Review what you tell employees about pay: an eventual pay information right would let workers ask about pay levels, so it helps to know now what data you could produce.
- Watch the two enforcement bodies: the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Commission for Protection against Discrimination are both named in connection with this measure, and the Commission is Bulgaria’s equality body.
- Don’t set a reporting calendar yet: first reporting deadlines for larger and mid-size employers have not been researched or confirmed, so avoid committing to dates that aren’t yet defined.
The most useful thing you can do right now is prepare the groundwork, recruitment practices, pay data, and internal communication, without assuming the current draft text is final.
Enforcement and open questions
- Competent authority
- Ministry of Labour and Social Policy; Commission for Protection against Discrimination
- Equality body
- Commission for Protection against Discrimination
- Penalties
- Current general Anti-Discrimination Act sanctions, amended in State Gazette30/27March2026: Article78 discrimination/obstruction EUR500-2,000; Article80(1) breach of statutory duty EUR250-2,000, with legal-person sanction and responsible employer-manager fine EUR500-5,000 under Article80(2)-(3). Repeat Article78-80 offences attract twice the initial sanction. Article82 noncompliance with a commission/court decision EUR2,000-10,000, and continuing after three months EUR5,000-20,000. Filed transparency bill does not itself add a separate fine schedule; no draft duty is currently enforceable merely because these general sanctions exist.
- What could still change
- Live official public JSON dossier recovered4November; committee report24181 confirms9-0 first-reading recommendation1October, while steno_hall is empty and promulgation fields are unfilled. Dossier also lists Podkrepa19October, KNSB20October and BSK26October opinions; these are non-binding and do not amend the filed bill. KZD29September opposition/resource concerns remain relevant. Proposed Article14b(9) names the Labour Minister for the ordinance; transitional paragraph14 names the Council of Ministers. Final calculation, hours/FTE, partial-year treatment, threshold date, minimum-cell privacy and filing schema remain unresolved. Latest national-law/judicial checks are not an exhaustive absence certification.
Common questions
Is Bulgaria's pay transparency law already in force?
No. It is a published draft amendment to the Protection against Discrimination Act, which would implement EU Directive 2023/970, and it went through public consultation in May and June 2026. No final enacted measure has been identified, so core employer obligations remain pending.
Who will enforce pay transparency rules in Bulgaria?
The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Commission for Protection against Discrimination are both named as relevant authorities. The Commission also serves as Bulgaria's equality body. Their specific enforcement roles will depend on the final adopted text.
What will Bulgaria's pay transparency rules cover once adopted?
The proposed rules would apply nationwide, across both public and private employment. Details on the pay information right, salary ranges in job postings, and any salary history ban have not yet been researched or confirmed in the published draft.
When do gender pay gap reporting deadlines start in Bulgaria?
First reporting due dates for employers with 250 or more staff, and for those with 100 to 149 staff, have not been researched yet. The overall start date for core obligations is currently listed as pending, so no deadlines can be confirmed.
Is Bulgaria going further than the EU directive requires?
It's currently unclear whether Bulgaria's draft goes beyond the minimum requirements of the EU Pay Transparency Directive. This will only become clear once a final law is adopted and its text can be compared against the directive.
- Pay information request right Art. 7(1)
- Proposed
- Response deadline Art. 7(4)
- 2 months initially; 14 days for justified clarification (proposed)
- Salary range in recruitment Art. 5(1)
- Yes
- Salary history questions banned Art. 5(2)
- Yes
- Joint pay assessment trigger Art. 10(1)
- 5.0%
Own remuneration plus sex-disaggregated average remuneration for workers doing the same work or work of equal value; where disclosure risks identifying another worker's individual pay, information is routed via the enterprise union and/or Commission for Protection against Discrimination.
Filed operative text reviewed. Transparency rule remains a proposal; committee approval is not enactment. Independently identified baseline rights are labelled separately; unresolved operational detail is not supplied from the EU baseline. BG-DEEP-20261104064457
Read the sourceThe employer must answer in writing within this period.
Filed operative text reviewed. Transparency rule remains a proposal; committee approval is not enactment. Independently identified baseline rights are labelled separately; unresolved operational detail is not supplied from the EU baseline. BG-DEEP-20261104064457
Read the sourceApplicants receive the pay or pay range before the interview, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria.
Proposed Article12(4): initial basic pay or range plus permanent supplements and applicableCBA terms. No specified disclosure form/deadline and no pay-publication-in-ad rule. Job-title ad requirement is separate. BG-DEEP-20261104064457
Read the sourceWhether employers are prohibited from asking applicants about their current or previous pay.
Filed operative text reviewed. Transparency rule remains a proposal; committee approval is not enactment. Independently identified baseline rights are labelled separately; unresolved operational detail is not supplied from the EU baseline. BG-DEEP-20261104064457
Read the sourceThe unjustified gap that obliges the employer and worker representatives to assess pay together.
Filed operative text reviewed. Transparency rule remains a proposal; committee approval is not enactment. Independently identified baseline rights are labelled separately; unresolved operational detail is not supplied from the EU baseline. BG-DEEP-20261104064457
Read the source- Reporting threshold
- 100 employees
- Reporting model
- Proposed employer-calculated 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
- By 7 Jun 2027 (proposed)
- First report, 100 to 149 employees
- By 7 Jun 2031 (proposed)
- Metrics required
- EU seven only 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 Anti-Discrimination Act Articles9,12,14,22,71-75 and Labour Code Articles127,128,243,358-359 provide equal-pay/nondiscrimination, wage-rule familiarisation, own-payroll extracts, conditional burden shifting, representative actions and procedural fee protections. These baseline rights do not make the new draft comparator-information or reporting duties operational.
- Formal transposition stage
- Published draft
- Scope
- Nationwide
Next milestone
Watch the first plenary reading and subsequent amendments/adoption of bill167545. Lead committee recommended approval1October; no plenary vote recorded in live dossier4November. Resolve KZD/resources and ordinance-making authority; final methodology is proposed within three months of promulgation. If enacted unchanged, prepare2026 data for150+ first reports by7June2027 and100-149 first reports by7June2031.
Primary sources
- Government-approved draft amending the Protection against Discrimination Act, National Assembly bill 167545 / 52-602-01-42; lead committee recommended first-reading approval on 1 October 2026. No plenary vote or promulgation is recorded in the live dossier checked 4 November. Primary source, checked 4 November 2026
- Formal transposition stage Published draft · proposed · High confidence
- Core employer obligations Not operational · proposed · High confidence
- Transposition scope Nationwide · proposed · High confidence
- Salary range in recruitment Yes · proposed · High confidence
- Salary history questions banned Yes · proposed · High confidence
- Pay information request right Yes · proposed · High confidence
- Response deadline 2 months initially; 14 days for justified clarification (proposed) · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting threshold 100 · proposed · High confidence
- First report, 250 or more employees By 7 Jun 2027 (proposed) · proposed · High confidence
- First report, 100 to 149 employees By 7 Jun 2031 (proposed) · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting model Proposed employer-calculated · proposed · High confidence
- Joint pay assessment trigger 5.0% · proposed · High confidence
- Info reference period Unclear · unclear · High confidence
- Info pay basis Actual remuneration paid / earned · proposed · High confidence
- Info pay components scope Total remuneration / all components · proposed · High confidence
- Info request frequency Multiple / mixed · proposed · High confidence
- Info employee reference period eligibility No prior-reference-period service condition is stated in proposed Article 14a. The parallel Labour Code Article 128a(3) limits repeated supplementary requests to once in a year; this is not a general one-request limit on Article 14a. · proposed · High confidence
- Info normalisation method Annual gross remuneration plus corresponding gross hourly remuneration. · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting reference period Previous calendar year · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting pay basis Actual remuneration paid / earned · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting pay components scope Different / modified · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting population basis Employees of the undertaking/administration in scope, including workers supplied by a temporary-work agency for threshold headcount; the filed bill does not state a separate point-in-time headcount snapshot rule. · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting normalisation method Annual gross remuneration plus corresponding gross hourly remuneration. · proposed · High confidence
- Employer required input data Historical payroll/remuneration, sex, same/equal-value employee category, base and additional/variable pay, paid/working-hours data, temporary-agency-worker headcount/status, and data needed for annual/hourly pay-level calculations. · proposed · High confidence
- First data period needed Proposed: 2026 data for the first 2027 reporting cycle for 150+ employers if the filed bill timetable is enacted. · proposed · High confidence
- Own pay information Yes · in force · High confidence
- Comparator information Yes · proposed · High confidence
- Comparator information start Day of State Gazette promulgation (proposed) · proposed · High confidence
- Annual average information start Day of State Gazette promulgation (proposed; no separate later stage) · proposed · High confidence
Change history
Recent updates
Bulgaria draft does not mandate salary disclosure in job ads
A full-text review corrects the tracker’s recruitment rules: the filed Bulgarian bill requires initial-pay information but specifies no job-ad publication duty or disclosure deadline.
Bulgaria files Government-approved pay-transparency bill in Parliament
Bulgaria’s Government-approved Directive 2023/970 bill has been formally filed in the National Assembly.
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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