Pay transparency in Czechia
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Pay information requests Partly in force
Own remuneration and sex-disaggregated average remuneration for the employee's work group (proposed).
Check the scope of what has commenced.
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Time to respond 2 months for initial information and 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.
Czechia has taken its first concrete step toward the EU Pay Transparency Directive, but only one piece of it is actually law. Since 1 June 2025, pay-secrecy clauses in employment contracts are prohibited and unenforceable under Act No. 120/2025 Coll. A wider package covering pay ranges in recruitment, salary history questions and gender pay gap reporting has been proposed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, but it is not yet enacted.
For employers, this means two different clocks are running. One obligation is already binding today. The rest is a published proposal that shows the likely direction of Czech law, but it could still change before it takes effect.
The measure
- Law or measure
- Act No. 120/2025 Coll. pay-secrecy amendment in force; broader Labour Code bill 300/0 (OVA 559/26), filed 8 September 2026, completed first reading 20 October and awaits Social Policy Committee consideration.
- Core obligations start
- 1 Jun 2025 (pay-secrecy clauses); broader proposal pending
- Who is covered
- Proposed Labour Code transparency duties apply across employer sizes, including DPP/DPČ recruitment. Mandatory reporting starts with 150+ annual work units in 2028, extends to 100+ in 2031; 250+ annual, smaller categories subject to the unresolved transitional cadence.
What the law requires
- Salary history questions banned Source for: Salary history questions banned
- Pay information requests, 2 months for initial information and justified clarification (proposed) to respond Source for: Pay information requests, 2 months for initial information and 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
1 further dimension is still being verified against official sources.
How Czechia differs from the Directive
Minimum starting remuneration plus benefits must be disclosed provably before contract conclusion; no mandatory range or job-ad publication. MPSV calculates six overall metrics from JMHZ while employers file work-group metrics by 30 April. The implementing theses list first 150-249 filing in 2028, a further filing in 2030, then every three years, which needs reconciliation with the bill's general triennial rule. Temporarily assigned agency workers are excluded from employer-size and reporting calculations through 2030 and first included in 2031. Existing pay-secrecy law remains live; the broader package is proposed.
What this means for employers
Right now, your only firm legal duty in Czechia is to stop using or enforcing pay-secrecy clauses. If your contracts or policies still tell employees not to discuss their pay, those clauses no longer hold up, and relying on them can expose you to a fine of up to CZK 400,000. Beyond that, nothing else in the Directive is yet in force here, so treat the rest as a strong signal rather than a current requirement.
- Review contracts and policies for pay-secrecy language and remove or disapply it now.
- Track the MPSV proposal rather than assume it is final, since it is not yet enacted and may change.
- Start thinking about salary ranges in job postings and offers, since the proposal would require sharing them with candidates in advance.
- Review recruitment practices around pay history questions, since the proposal would ban asking applicants about past pay.
- Watch the reporting threshold of 100 employees and the proposed staged start dates, since larger employers would be expected to report first.
Enforcement and open questions
- Competent authority
- Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs; State Labour Inspection Office
- Equality body
- Public Defender of Rights
- Penalties
- Current pay-secrecy enforcement can attract up to CZK 400,000. Filed proposal adds distinct offences for pay/benefit systems, information, assessment and reporting; explicit proposed maximum CZK 200,000 for individual-information breaches and salary-history inquiries. Other offence maxima require reading the consolidated Inspection Act alongside amendments; do not apply draft fines as current law.
- What could still change
- Official Chamber dossier checked 4 November: print 300/0 filed 8 September; first reading completed 20 October; Social Policy Committee has not considered it. Further consideration is possible from 20 November, not a scheduled vote. Broad duties remain draft. Non-final theses leave formula annexes, minimum sex-cell size and prescribed form incomplete; 150-249 cadence conflicts (2028/2030 in theses versus general triennial rule). Disability-accessibility language appears in explanatory text without a verified corresponding operative provision. Specific job-title, management attestation, litigation-cost and procurement mechanics remain unresolved.
Common questions
Is the EU Pay Transparency Directive already law in Czechia?
Only partly. A ban on pay-secrecy clauses has been in force since 1 June 2025 under Act No. 120/2025 Coll. The broader set of Directive obligations, including pay-range disclosure and reporting, remains a Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs proposal that has not been enacted.
What does Czechia's pay-secrecy ban actually require?
It prohibits employment clauses that stop employees discussing their pay, and such clauses are now unenforceable. Enforcing a prohibited pay-secrecy clause can be treated as an administrative offence, with fines of up to CZK 400,000.
When would gender pay gap reporting start in Czechia?
Under the pending proposal, reporting would start at employers with 100 or more employees. Proposed first reporting dates are 2028 for larger employers and 2031 for employers with 100 to 149 employees, but these dates are not yet law.
Will Czech employers have to disclose salary ranges to candidates?
That requirement is part of the proposed transposition, not current law. If enacted as proposed, employers would need to share the pay range for a role with candidates in advance, and would also be barred from asking about salary history.
Which authorities oversee pay transparency in Czechia?
The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the State Labour Inspection Office are the competent authorities, with the Public Defender of Rights acting as the equality body. Their current enforcement role covers the pay-secrecy ban, since the wider rules are still proposed.
- Pay information request right Art. 7(1)
- Partly in force
- Response deadline Art. 7(4)
- 2 months for initial information and justified clarification (proposed)
- Salary history questions banned Art. 5(2)
- Yes
- Joint pay assessment trigger Art. 10(1)
- 5.0%
Own remuneration and sex-disaggregated average remuneration for the employee's work group (proposed).
Reviewed filed bill300/0 and current official dossier. Broader requirements remain proposed; only existing pay-secrecy and independently identified baseline rights are current law. CZ-DEEP-20261104053713
Read the sourceThe employer must answer in writing within this period.
Reviewed filed bill300/0 and current official dossier. Broader requirements remain proposed; only existing pay-secrecy and independently identified baseline rights are current law. CZ-DEEP-20261104053713
Read the sourceWhether employers are prohibited from asking applicants about their current or previous pay.
Reviewed filed bill300/0 and current official dossier. Broader requirements remain proposed; only existing pay-secrecy and independently identified baseline rights are current law. CZ-DEEP-20261104053713
Read the sourceThe unjustified gap that obliges the employer and worker representatives to assess pay together.
Numeric native country percentage 0.05 / display5.0% preserved. Proposed trigger uses average hourly work-group difference at least5%, not annual pay difference alone. CZ-DEEP-20261104053713
Read the sourceStill being verified against official sources: salary range in recruitment.
- Reporting threshold
- 100 employees
- Reporting model
- Proposed hybrid / centralised 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
- 30 Apr 2028 (employer work-group filing, proposed)
- First report, 100 to 149 employees
- 30 Apr 2031 (employer work-group filing, 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
- Pay-secrecy clauses are prohibited and unenforceable; broader Directive recruitment, information and reporting rules remain proposed.
- Formal transposition stage
- Partly in force
- Scope
- Specific Directive provisions only
Next milestone
Watch Social Policy Committee and subsequent readings of print 300; further consideration possible from 20 November 2026, not a confirmed sitting/vote. Verify final enactment and decrees, reconcile 150-249 cadence and privacy thresholds/forms. Proposed general recruitment/pay-system start 1 January 2027; information/JPA/reporting stage 1 January 2028; 100-149 and assigned-agency reporting stage 2031.
Primary sources
- Act No. 120/2025 Coll. pay-secrecy amendment in force; broader Labour Code bill 300/0 (OVA 559/26), filed 8 September 2026, completed first reading 20 October and awaits Social Policy Committee consideration. Primary source, checked 4 November 2026
- Formal transposition stage Partly in force · in force · High confidence
- Core employer obligations Partly operational · in force · High confidence
- Transposition scope Specific Directive provisions only · in force · High confidence
- Salary range in recruitment Partial / conditional · proposed · High confidence
- Salary history questions banned Yes · proposed · High confidence
- Pay information request right Yes · proposed · High confidence
- Response deadline 2 months for initial information and justified clarification (proposed) · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting threshold 100 · proposed · High confidence
- First report, 250 or more employees 30 Apr 2028 (employer work-group filing, proposed) · proposed · High confidence
- First report, 100 to 149 employees 30 Apr 2031 (employer work-group filing, proposed) · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting model Proposed hybrid / centralised · proposed · High confidence
- Joint pay assessment trigger 5.0% · proposed · High confidence
- Info reference period Previous calendar year · proposed · 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 Once per calendar year · proposed · High confidence
- Info employee reference period eligibility Employee must have worked for the employer for at least one day in the previous calendar year. A worker joining in 2028 would first become eligible in 2029, using 2028 data. · proposed · High confidence
- Info normalisation method Annual gross + hourly equivalent · 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 Previous-calendar-year employment population using JMHZ and annual work units. Full-year full-time equals one unit; part-time, DPP/DPČ, seasonal and partial-year work is fractional. Article XXV(4) excludes temporarily assigned agency workers from §§37e-37i through 31 December 2030. They first enter the proposed user-employer size/reporting model in 2031 using 2030 data. · proposed · High confidence
- Reporting normalisation method Size uses the rounded arithmetic mean of twelve monthly work units (RPJ). Monthly units prorate register days and contracted versus standard hours, or worked hours for DPP/DPČ. Work-group pay gaps use annual and hourly outputs separately for base/tariff and supplementary/variable pay; hourly calculations use worked plus compensated/non-reduced-pay hours. Implementing annexes remain draft theses. · proposed · High confidence
- Employer required input data Previous-calendar-year JMHZ/payroll: sex, relationship type and identifier, occupation/CZ-ISCO, standard and contracted hours, register days, worked and compensated hours, total accounted income, tariff/base pay, supplementary/variable pay and equal-value work-group mapping. Agency/user assignment data supports the later 2031 reporting stage; temporarily assigned agency workers are excluded from size/reporting calculations through 2030. · proposed · High confidence
- First data period needed 2027 data for proposed information rights from 1 January 2028 and first work-group reporting by 30 April 2028. The bill expressly excludes a 2027 report on 2026. Agency-worker reporting begins in 2031 using 2030 data (proposed). · proposed · High confidence
- Own pay information Yes · in force · High confidence
- Comparator information Yes · proposed · High confidence
- Comparator information start 1 Jan 2028 (proposed) · proposed · High confidence
- Annual average information start 1 Jan 2028 (proposed; previous-calendar-year annual and hourly outputs) · proposed · High confidence
Change history
Recent updates
Czech draft delays agency-worker reporting until 2031
The revised Czech bill excludes temporarily assigned agency workers from employer-size and pay-gap reporting calculations through 2030.
Czechia publishes the government-approved pay-transparency bill text and reporting methodology
Czechia has published the revised government-approved text of bill 559/26 together with draft implementing methodology.
Czech Government approves pay-transparency bill with changes
The Czech Government approved Labour Code amendment 559/26 with changes on 31 August.
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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