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 (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 OVA 559/26 approved by Government with changes on 31 August 2026; Government-approved revised state-A text package published in VeKLEP on 4 September 2026; parliamentary enactment pending
- Core obligations start
- 1 Jun 2025 (pay-secrecy clauses); broader proposal pending
- Who is covered
- Proposed Labour Code rules apply to employers and employees; recruitment disclosure and salary-history rules also cover DPP/DPČ agreements; regular reporting starts at 100 employees.
What the law requires
- Salary history questions banned Source for: Salary history questions banned
- Pay information requests, 2 months (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
The Government-approved proposal requires disclosure of minimum starting remuneration plus monetary/non-monetary benefits no later than before the employment contract is concluded, rather than a mandatory pay range or mandatory job-ad publication. Proposed monitoring uses JMHZ data and annual-work-unit headcount methodology; MPSV publishes anonymised aggregate information. The broader package remains a draft despite the in-force pay-secrecy amendment.
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
- Enforcing a prohibited pay-secrecy clause may constitute an administrative offence punishable by a fine of up to CZK 400,000.
- What could still change
- The 4 September VeKLEP state-A package now provides the Government-approved revised bill and draft implementing methodology, resolving the previous text-access uncertainty. The broader package is still not enacted and its implementing regulations are drafts; parliamentary amendments and final decrees can still change the obligations. The next controlling milestones are the Chamber/PSP filing, parliamentary adoption and final implementing rules.
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 (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).
The employer must answer in writing within this period.
Whether employers are prohibited from asking applicants about their current or previous pay.
The approved proposal prohibits asking applicants about previous wage, salary or remuneration. It remains proposed, not enacted.
Read the sourceThe unjustified gap that obliges the employer and worker representatives to assess pay together.
Detailed pay assessment is triggered only where a work-group average hourly gender pay gap is at least 5%, is not objectively/non-discriminatorily justified and is not remedied within six months.
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
- 2028 (proposed)
- First report, 100 to 149 employees
- 2031 (proposed)
- Metrics required
- Proposed overall reporting covers gender pay gap, gap in supplementary/variable components, median pay gap, median supplementary/variable gap, share of women/men receiving supplementary/variable components, and pay quartiles. Work-group reporting additionally calculates annual and hourly gaps separately for base/tariff and supplementary/variable remuneration. 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
Track the Chamber/PSP filing and parliamentary amendments to 559/26, then adoption/promulgation and final implementing decrees. Revalidate commencement and calculation mechanics against the enacted text/final regulations before treating the broader duties as operational.
Primary sources
- Act No. 120/2025 Coll. pay-secrecy amendment in force; broader Labour Code bill OVA 559/26 approved by Government with changes on 31 August 2026; Government-approved revised state-A text package published in VeKLEP on 4 September 2026; parliamentary enactment pending Primary source, checked 5 September 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
- Reporting threshold 100 · proposed · high confidence
- First report, 250 or more employees 2028 (proposed) · proposed · high confidence
- First report, 100 to 149 employees 2031 (proposed) · proposed · high confidence
- Reporting model Proposed hybrid / centralised · proposed · high confidence
- Joint pay assessment trigger 5% · 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 normalisation method Annual gross + hourly equivalent · proposed · high confidence
- Reporting pay basis Actual remuneration paid / earned · proposed · high confidence
- Reporting pay components scope Total remuneration / all components · proposed · high confidence
- Reporting population basis Previous-calendar-year employment population from JMHZ. Employer size is calculated as annual work units across the year: full-time full-year employment equals one unit, while part-time, DPP/DPČ, seasonal and partial-year work is fractional. Agency workers assigned to a user employer are included for the user employer's size/work-group reporting; specified occupation categories are excluded where the implementing methodology requires. · proposed · high confidence
- Reporting normalisation method Employer size uses monthly work units (MPJ) rolled into an annual work unit (RPJ), with fractional treatment for partial-time/partial-year work. Pay-gap outputs use annual and hourly measures; work-group reporting separates base/tariff and supplementary or variable remuneration. · proposed · high confidence
- Employer required input data Previous-calendar-year JMHZ/payroll data including sex, employment/relationship type, occupation/CZ-ISCO, relationship/assignment identifiers, standard and contracted hours, days in register, worked and compensated hours, total accounted income, tariff/base remuneration, supplementary/variable remuneration, equal-value work-group mapping and agency-worker assignment data where applicable. · proposed · high confidence
Change history
Recent updates
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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