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Pay transparency in Lithuania

In force Last updated 4 September 2026

  • Pay information requests Pending

    Own monthly hourly pay and sex-disaggregated average monthly hourly pay for employees in the same job category; annual hourly averages are added from 2028.

  • 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.

Lithuania has already moved from proposal to law. The Labour Code amendments implementing pay transparency entered into force on 7 June 2026, and the core employer obligations apply nationwide from that date.

This is not a future draft you can watch from a distance. Salary publication in job advertisements and the ban on asking about salary history are already active, and employees can already ask for their own pay information. What is still ahead is the operational side: building the data flows that feed Lithuania’s central reporting system through Sodra.

Because Lithuania combines an already-active information regime with a staged, centralised reporting model, the practical work now is less about waiting for a law and more about getting your pay systems and data ready in time for each deadline.

The measure

Law or measure
Lietuvos Respublikos darbo kodekso 23, 26, 39, 40, 41, 42, 48, 51, 52, 65, 71, 79, 131, 140, 147, 148, 197, 217, 219, 226 straipsnių ir priedo pakeitimo įstatymas
Core obligations start
7 Jun 2026
Who is covered
Labour Code employers and employees; related package extends aligned rules to specified public-sector employment/pay regimes.

What the law requires

1 further dimension is still being verified against official sources.

How Lithuania differs from the Directive

Lithuania retains salary publication in job advertisements and uses a central Sodra data model. From 2027 employers submit payroll, working-time and job-group data to Sodra. Sodra publishes monthly sex-disaggregated average hourly pay only where an employer has at least 8 employees, including more than 3 women and more than 3 men.

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

Your immediate obligations are already live. You must publish salary ranges in job advertisements, you cannot ask candidates about salary history, and employees can request their own pay figures along with average pay by sex for people doing the same or similar work. You have two months to respond to those requests.

The bigger operational shift is the move to Lithuania’s centralised reporting model. From 2027, employers submit payroll, working-time and job-group data to Sodra, which then calculates and publishes the required indicators using the Directive’s seven standard metrics. A joint pay assessment can be triggered where an unexplained pay gap in any category reaches 5%, alongside the other required conditions.

  • By 31 December 2026: have a gender-neutral pay system in place, since this is the deadline the national timeline points to for getting pay structures ready.
  • From 1 January 2027: start submitting payroll, working-time and job-group data to Sodra.
  • By 2028: employers with at least 150 employees deliver their first annual pay-gap report, covering 2027 data.
  • By 2031: employers with 100 to 149 employees deliver their first report, covering 2030 data.
  • Ongoing: keep your recruitment and employee-information processes ready to answer requests within the two-month window.

Sodra will only publish monthly sex-disaggregated average pay for an employer where that employer has at least 8 employees, including more than 3 women and more than 3 men, so smaller job categories are handled differently. Preparing your data now helps you meet these staged deadlines without a last-minute scramble.

Enforcement and open questions

Competent authority
Valstybinė darbo inspekcija (VDI); Valstybinio socialinio draudimo fondo valdyba (Sodra) administers pay-transparency data flows; labour disputes bodies/courts provide remedies.
Equality body
Lygių galimybių kontrolieriaus tarnyba
Penalties
Administrative liability applies for failures to provide required pay information; other Labour Code breaches remain subject to labour-law and administrative enforcement.
What could still change
Core Labour Code amendments are in force but operational duties are staged. Sodra's implementation page was updated on 2 September 2026 with the SDUP data-structure description and JSON validation schema. The specification materially clarifies the fields and validation needed for system/file submissions; JSON generation is not mandatory for employers that use the Sodra employer-account form. Existing 28 February 2027 / 1 March 2027 / 1 March 2028 milestones remain unchanged.

Common questions

Is the EU Pay Transparency Directive already law in Lithuania?

Yes. Lithuania implemented it through Labour Code amendments that entered into force on 7 June 2026, so the core employer obligations are already binding nationwide, not just proposed.

Can employees in Lithuania ask what they are paid compared to colleagues?

Yes, employees can request their own pay information and the average pay by sex for people doing the same or similar work, and employers have two months to respond.

When do employers in Lithuania have to submit pay-gap reports?

Employers with at least 150 employees deliver their first annual report in 2028 using 2027 data, while employers with 100 to 149 employees deliver their first report in 2031 using 2030 data. Employers below 100 employees are not subject to this annual reporting duty.

How does Lithuania's reporting system actually work?

Lithuania uses a hybrid, centralised model: employers submit payroll, working-time and job-group data to the Sodra social insurance authority starting 1 January 2027, and Sodra calculates and publishes the required indicators. This is different from a system where employers calculate and publish the figures themselves.

What happens if an employer in Lithuania fails to provide required pay information?

Administrative liability applies for failing to provide required pay information, and other breaches of the Labour Code rules remain subject to standard labour-law and administrative enforcement. The State Labour Inspectorate and Sodra oversee these duties, with labour dispute bodies and courts providing remedies.

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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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