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Pay transparency in Greece

In force Last updated 4 November 2026

  • Pay information requests In force

    Own pay and sex-disaggregated same/equal-value category averages; CircularA.II requires active workers and consistent temporal/calculation bases for individual and comparator values. Identifiable-person data are restricted to representatives/Inspectorate/Ombudsman under Article 13, without disclosing individual coworkers' real pay. Historical/single-source comparators under Article 18 concern dispute proof, not an unrestricted information-request population.

    What this means in practice

  • 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
Nationwide public/private framework. Core Labour Code Articles 37,56 A-56 D apply to private-sector dependent employment and the specified public-sector bodies/companies under Article 47(2); the broader equality chapter has a wider personal scope. Principal transparency duties have applied since 1 November 2026.

What the law requires

How Greece differs from the Directive

Greek law requires written, reviewable pay structures; pay progression disclosure may be omitted below 50 employees. The first 150+ report covers only 1 November-31 December 2026. JPA has default non-union representatives and a one-year corrective period after communication, distinct from the six-month trigger. Public-sector authority/publication arrangements differ from private employment.

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 for private-sector enforcement; Greek Ombudsman as statutory equality/monitoring body. The National Transparency Authority replaces Labour Inspectorate functions for specified public-sector reporting, JPA, privacy and compliance provisions.
Equality body
Greek Ombudsman
Penalties
Article 16 applies LabourCode 572 administrative sanctions to equal-pay/transparency breaches, with aggravating/mitigating factors including intersectional discrimination. Article 17 permits compliance orders and recurring fines for each 3 months of noncompliance. Article 31 delegates specific fine calculations/amounts to ministerial decisions; no verified dedicated implementing fine schedule is recorded here.
What could still change
Core duties are legally live from 1 November 2026; reporting deadlines remain 2027/2031. Current ministry hub and circular status list still identify Law 5316 and Circular 26923 as applicable. Remaining gaps: exact portal/schema and public-sector implementing arrangements; detailed hours/FTE/partial-year/headcount averaging algorithms; dedicated fine decisions; procurement and litigation-cost rules. Circular drafting shorthand (JPA>100 versusstatutory≥100; a-fversusallseven toOmbudsman)must not override the statute.

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.

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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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