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Pay transparency in Spain

Published draft Last updated 29 August 2026

  • Pay information requests Proposed

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

    In the published draft, not yet in force.

  • Time to respond 2 months

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

Spain already has pay transparency rules in force. Royal Decrees 901/2020 and 902/2020 require a pay register and, for many employers, equality plans and pay audits. These stay in effect right now, regardless of what happens with the EU Directive.

On 3 August 2026, the government published a draft Royal Decree that would amend RD 902/2020 to partially bring Spain in line with the EU Pay Transparency Directive. It is open for public feedback until 24 August 2026, so it is a proposal, not a law employers must follow yet.

The draft would add an employee right to pay information, a two-month response deadline, and a phased pay-gap reporting duty starting from 50 employees. None of this binds employers until a final Royal Decree is adopted and published in the BOE.

The measure

Law or measure
Draft Royal Decree amending Royal Decree 902/2020 to partially transpose Directive (EU) 2023/970; Royal Decrees 901/2020 and 902/2020 remain in force
Core obligations start
Day after BOE publication (proposed)
Who is covered
All employers maintain a pay register; equality plans and pay audits generally apply from 50 employees

What the law requires

2 further dimensions are still being verified against official sources.

How Spain differs from the Directive

Spain combines the live RD 901/2020 and RD 902/2020 pay-register and pay-audit regime with a 3 August 2026 partial-transposition draft. The draft proposes reporting from 50 employees, first 150+ reporting by 7 June 2027 and 50-149 by 7 June 2031, annual/hourly employee information and a national audit-remediation route rather than a fixed 5% JPA trigger. Current Supreme Court case law (STS 1302/2024; STS 620/2026) confirms that the live wage-register mechanism does not create a general right to identifiable coworkers' salaries.

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 legal obligations in Spain are the ones already set by Royal Decrees 901/2020 and 902/2020: keep your pay register current, and run equality plans and pay audits if you sit above the existing thresholds. Nothing about the Directive changes that baseline yet.

The draft is worth reading closely because it would extend obligations further down the size scale than many EU peers, starting reporting at 50 employees rather than a higher threshold. If adopted as proposed, larger employers would face their first reporting cycle by 7 June 2027, and employers with 50 to 149 workers by 7 June 2031.

  • Keep your current RD 901/2020 and RD 902/2020 controls running: pay register, and equality plans or audits if you meet the existing size thresholds.
  • Review the draft Royal Decree before 24 August 2026 if you want to submit feedback, and track the final published version.
  • Sketch a workflow for employee pay-information requests, built around a two-month response window and comparisons by pay level and by sex within categories doing the same work or work of equal value.
  • Model what reporting from 50 employees would mean for you, including which of the two proposed first-cycle dates would apply to your headcount.
  • Note what is still undefined: the draft does not yet settle salary range disclosure or a salary history ban, so treat those as open questions rather than confirmed rules.

Enforcement and open questions

Competent authority
Ministry of Labour and Social Economy; Labour and Social Security Inspectorate
Equality body
Instituto de las Mujeres
What could still change
The public hearing closed on 24 August 2026; all draft employer obligations remain proposed and no final BOE adoption was identified as of 29 August. STS 620/2026 reinforces the current Art. 28.2 ET/RD 902/2020 boundary: transparency requires sufficient aggregated data, not a general colleague-by-colleague salary right, with GDPR minimisation relevant. Do not overgeneralise this rule: STS 727/2026 confirms that separate public-sector transparency law can support individualized public-employee remuneration access. The 22 July Instituto de las Mujeres-ITSS cooperation agreement remains an enforcement-readiness development, not a new employer duty.

Common questions

Is the EU Pay Transparency Directive already law in Spain?

No. Spain's Directive-specific rules exist only as a draft Royal Decree published on 3 August 2026, open for public feedback until 24 August 2026. What is currently in force is the pre-existing regime under Royal Decrees 901/2020 and 902/2020.

What pay-gap reporting threshold is Spain proposing?

The draft proposes reporting from 50 employees, using an employer-calculated model with the EU's seven core metrics. Proposed first due dates are 7 June 2027 for larger employers and 7 June 2031 for employers with 50 to 149 workers, but these dates and the threshold are not yet final.

Would Spanish employees get a right to ask about pay?

Under the draft, yes: employees would be able to request their own pay level plus sex-disaggregated average pay for categories doing the same work or work of equal value, with a proposed two-month response deadline. This right is proposed, not yet in force.

Does Spain have salary range or salary history rules?

These are not yet defined in the current draft. Employers should treat both salary range disclosure and any salary history ban as open questions until the Royal Decree is finalised.

Who enforces pay transparency requirements in Spain?

The Ministry of Labour and Social Economy and the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate are the competent authorities. Instituto de las Mujeres acts as the 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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