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Pay transparency in France

Published draft Last updated 16 September 2026

  • Pay information requests 10 Sep 2026

    Own remuneration level plus sex-disaggregated average remuneration levels for workers in the same category performing the same work or work of equal value. Where disclosure could reveal identifiable third-party pay, an indirect response route is proposed.

  • Time to respond Private sector: maximum two months from the request. Public sector: response deadline to be fixed by decree.

    Every request starts a clock. Answering one needs pay structures and equal-value groupings that already exist.

  • Salary history questions are banned

    Applicants learn the pay range before the interview, and employers may not ask what they earn today.

France has not yet passed a law to implement the EU Pay Transparency Directive. The country is at an advanced stage of official preparation, but the text itself has not been published or confirmed.

What is confirmed is that an unpublished draft bill, known as an avant-projet, was reported to the Assemblée nationale as having been sent to social partners on 6 March 2026. That same parliamentary record describes proposed features such as a 50-employee reporting threshold and pay ranges in job advertisements, but these remain proposals, not obligations. A separate government response to the Senate on 18 June 2026 said consultations were nearing completion and that the bill could then move to the Conseil d’État and Parliament, though a formal transmission has not been confirmed from a primary source.

While this plays out, France’s existing Professional Equality Index stays in force. It already applies annually to employers with at least 50 employees, and France’s overall approach is described as stricter than the EU baseline.

The measure

Law or measure
Projet de loi n° 944 (2025-2026) portant transposition de la directive (UE) 2023/970; Professional Equality Index remains in force during the transition
Core obligations start
Proposed private-sector Article 1 commencement will be set by decree no later than one year after promulgation. Government plans the current Index for the 2027 declaration and the new Index from 2028; the category-level indicator may be deferred up to 3 years for 100-149 and 6 years for 50-99. Public new indicators are planned from 2028 for 150+ agents and from 1 June 2030 for other covered public employers.
Who is covered
Proposed nationwide package covers private and public employers. Individual worker pay-information rights apply regardless of headcount; private reporting/remediation starts at 50 workers with simplified 50-99 procedures. Existing Professional Equality Index duties remain live during transition.

What the law requires

How France differs from the Directive

Proposed French model goes below the Directive's reporting floor by applying the new reporting/correction architecture from 50 workers, with simplified 50-99 procedures. Six private indicators are intended to be pre-calculated from DSN; the category-level indicator is employer/category based and triennial for 50-249. A separate proposed rule would require job ads to state an estimated remuneration. The exact corrective-gap threshold will be set by decree and cannot exceed 5%.

On at least one point the national rules go beyond the Directive minimum, so preparing to the EU baseline alone is not enough here.

What this means for employers

For now, your obligations in France come from the existing Professional Equality Index, not from the Directive itself. If you employ 50 or more people in France, you should already be filing this annually. Directive-specific dates, thresholds, and reporting metrics remain pending, and France’s reporting scope is described as different or modified from the Directive’s standard metrics, so treat any new requirement as unconfirmed until it is formally published.

  • Keep your Equality Index filings current for any French entity with 50 or more employees. This obligation is already in force and does not depend on the Directive’s timeline.
  • Do not build compliance processes around the draft bill’s proposed features, such as pay ranges in job ads or a 50-employee threshold, since these are proposals reported in parliamentary records, not settled law.
  • Treat employee pay information rights, salary range disclosure, and salary history rules as not yet defined for France. None of these have been confirmed, so avoid assuming a specific policy applies.
  • Watch for the bill’s formal publication or transmission to the Conseil d’État and Parliament, since this is the next concrete milestone to track.
  • Expect the Ministry of Labour, DREETS, and labour inspection to remain the relevant authorities, with the Defender of Rights as the equality body, once obligations are formalised.

Enforcement and open questions

Competent authority
Ministry of Labour; DREETS and labour inspection
Equality body
Defender of Rights
Penalties
Proposed private-sector administrative penalties are capped at 1% of payroll for key reporting, unjustified-gap remediation and collective-negotiation/action-plan failures, and generally at €450 per breach for individual applicant/worker obligations; other criminal sanctions are also strengthened.
What could still change
Government bill PJL n° 944 is now publicly filed in the Senate and remains a proposal, not adopted law. Key mechanics still depend on decrees, including the exact category-gap/JPA threshold, calculation methods and staged commencement. The impact study discusses a 5% corrective/JPA design, but the operative bill delegates the percentage to decree, so no fixed national trigger is recorded. The Conseil d’État also flags a required organic-law adjustment for the Defender of Rights' full equality-body role and a remaining military public-service scope gap.

Common questions

Has France passed a law to implement the EU Pay Transparency Directive?

No. France is at an official preparation stage, and the transposition text has not been published. A draft bill was reported as circulated to social partners on 6 March 2026, but it is not yet law.

What do French employers currently have to do on pay transparency?

Right now, the binding requirement is the existing Professional Equality Index, which applies annually to employers with at least 50 employees. Directive-specific obligations and dates are still pending and have not been set.

Does the French draft bill include pay ranges in job adverts or an employee right to pay information?

A parliamentary record describes proposed pay ranges in job ads as part of the unpublished draft bill, but this is not confirmed as law. Whether employees will have a formal right to request pay information, and whether salary history questions will be restricted, has not yet been defined.

When will France's Pay Transparency Directive rules take effect?

There is no confirmed start date. The start of any Directive-specific core obligations is listed as pending, and reporting deadlines for both larger and smaller employers depend on the existing Index while Directive-specific dates remain unresolved.

Will France's reporting rules match the Directive's standard metrics?

France's reporting metrics scope is described as different or modified rather than matching the Directive's seven core metrics exactly. The specifics have not been finalised in a published text.

Who oversees pay transparency compliance in France?

The Ministry of Labour, along with DREETS and labour inspection, are the competent authorities. The Defender of Rights serves as the national equality body.

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Author

Karl Engelvuori

Co-founder, CEO

Karl Engelvuori is the co-founder and CEO of Evenpay. At Evenpay he leads sales, partnerships and thought leadership, helping European employers turn pay transparency from a compliance requirement into a competitive strength.

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