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Pay transparency in Greece

Adopted Last verified 7 August 2026 High confidence

  • Pay information requests 1 Nov 2026

    Own pay level and sex-disaggregated average pay levels for workers doing the same work or work of equal value

  • Time to respond 2 months

    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.

Greece has already passed its pay transparency law. Law 5316/2026 was published on 6 July 2026 and amends the Greek Labour Law Code, so this is enacted legislation, not a proposal still working its way through parliament.

The catch is timing. Most of the employer-facing duties, including the employee pay information right, the recruitment rules, and the reporting framework, do not take effect until 1 November 2026. That gives employers a real but limited window to get ready before these become live obligations.

Reporting deadlines then stretch out further depending on company size, with the largest employers filing first and smaller ones following years later.

The measure

Law or measure
Law 5316/2026, strengthening equal pay through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms
Core obligations start
1 Nov 2026
Who is covered
Public and private employment under Law 5316/2026; phased commencement applies to core duties.

What the law requires

How Greece differs from the Directive

Law 5316/2026 took effect on publication; Articles 8-20 and 27 commence on 1 November 2026. Article 19 creates a three-year knowledge-based period for public-sector equal-pay claims, while private-sector duration remains claim-specific.

What this means for employers

From 1 November 2026, employees in Greece will have the right to ask for their own pay level and sex-disaggregated average pay for people doing the same work or work of equal value. Employers will have two months to respond once that right takes effect. The same commencement date brings in the salary range rule for recruitment and the ban on asking candidates about their pay history.

Reporting obligations apply to employers with 100 or more employees, and employers calculate and file the figures themselves under the EU’s seven standard metrics. The largest employers, those with 250 or more staff, have the earliest deadline; employers with 100 to 149 staff have several more years before their first report is due. A 5.0% pay gap is the trigger point that leads to a joint pay assessment.

  • Map your headcount against the 100-employee reporting threshold and identify which first-report deadline applies to you.
  • Review recruitment practices so job postings and hiring conversations are ready for the salary range rule and the salary history ban.
  • Build a response process for employee pay information requests, working to the two-month deadline.
  • Watch for implementing decisions on how electronic reporting will work in practice, since these details are still to come.

Enforcement and open questions

Competent authority
Ministry of Labour and Social Security; Labour Inspectorate
Equality body
Greek Ombudsman
Penalties
Full compensation and administrative sanctions are provided through the Labour Law Code; no euro amount is recorded without a separate primary citation to the general penalty provision in Article 572.
What could still change
The final law confirms phased commencement. No euro penalty amount is recorded because the law cross-refers to the general Labour Code sanction regime.

Common questions

Is Greece's pay transparency law already in force?

The law itself, Law 5316/2026, was published and took effect on 6 July 2026. However, the core employer duties in Articles 8 to 20 and 27, including the pay information right and reporting rules, do not commence until 1 November 2026.

Which employers in Greece need to report pay gap data?

The reporting framework applies to employers with 100 or more employees. Employers with 250 or more staff have their first report due by 7 June 2027, while employers with 100 to 149 staff have until 7 June 2031 for their first report.

Can employers in Greece still ask candidates about their salary history?

A salary history ban is enacted under Law 5316/2026 and is scheduled to take effect on 1 November 2026. Until that date, this restriction is not yet binding.

What happens if a pay gap analysis in Greece shows a problem?

A gap of 5.0% or more triggers a joint pay assessment under the law. Penalties for non-compliance are provided through the general Labour Law Code sanction regime, though no specific euro amount is recorded for pay transparency breaches specifically.

Author

Julius Aho

Co-founder, CTO

Julius Aho is the co-founder and CTO of Evenpay. At Evenpay he is responsible for product, engineering and AI, building the tools that make fair pay the default.