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Directive (EU) 2023/970

Pay setting and pay progression criteria under the EU Pay Transparency Directive

Employers must make the criteria for pay, pay levels and pay progression easily accessible to employees. The criteria must be objective and gender-neutral. Member states may exempt employers with fewer than 50 workers from the pay progression part.

Last checked 23 October 2026

What the directive says

Employers shall make easily accessible to their workers the criteria that are used to determine workers’ pay, pay levels and pay progression. Those criteria shall be objective and gender neutral.

Directive (EU) 2023/970, Article 6(1)

Member states may exempt employers with fewer than 50 workers from the pay progression part. Article 4 adds that employers must have pay structures that ensure equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. Read both articles in the official text on EUR-Lex.

What it means in practice

Three things employees can see

  • how pay is set: the criteria behind the starting pay and the pay for each role,
  • how pay levels are defined: what puts a job in a level or band, and
  • how pay progresses: what moves pay up over time, such as experience, performance or a change of role.

Easily accessible

The criteria must be available to every employee without a special request, for example in an employee handbook or on the intranet. Individual salaries are not part of this.

Objective and gender-neutral

Criteria that are vague, applied case by case or that indirectly favour one sex do not meet the requirement. Where a collective agreement sets pay, its provisions are part of the criteria.

The small employer option

The exemption below 50 workers covers only pay progression and only where national law uses it. The criteria for setting pay still apply.

How to prepare

  • Write down how pay is set for each job level, including which market data and approvals are used.
  • Define your pay levels or bands and what places a job in each.
  • Describe progression: what triggers a raise, how performance counts and who decides.
  • Check the criteria for gender bias, for example criteria that reward uninterrupted presence or long hours.
  • Publish the criteria in a place every employee can reach.
  • Apply them consistently and record the reason for any exception.

Questions employers ask

No. Article 6 covers the criteria for setting pay and progression, not individual salaries.

Evenpay keeps pay ranges, progression rules and the reasons for each decision together, so the criteria employees see are the ones actually applied. See how pay recommendations work.