On European equal pay day, trade unions are raising the alarm over attempts by business organisations to push back against pay transparency measures proven to cut gender pay inequality.
The gender pay gap within companies is 17% in countries without pay transparency laws, compared to 14% for countries that have pay transparency, an analysis of OECD data by the European Trade Union Institute has found.
The EU last year passed a pay transparency directive which, if it is properly transposed into national law by member states, will make a significant contribution to closing the gender pay gap across Europe, as the rules in the Pay Transparency Directive are more ambitious than what many Member states have in place.
| Country | Pay gap within firm | Reference period | Pay transparency |
| Portugal | -18.9 | 2002-2017 | |
| Finland | -18.7 | 2004-2016 | Yes |
| Estonia | -17.7 | 2003-2018 | |
| Hungary | -17.5 | 2003-2017 | |
| Germany | -17.1 | 2002-2018 | Yes |
| Austria | -16.0 | 2000-2018 | Yes |
| Netherlands | -15.5 | 2010-2019 | |
| Italy | -15.3 | 1996-2015 | |
| Slovakia | -15.0 | 2014-2019 | |
| Denmark | -14.6 | 2001-2017 | Yes |
| Spain | -12.9 | 2006-2018 | Yes |
| France | -12.1 | 2002-2018 | Yes |
| Sweden | -5.2 | 2002-2017 | Yes |
| Average where there is no pay transparency | -16.6 | ||
| Average where there is pay transparency | -13.8 |
Source: Oecd report chapter 5, p151 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/7d9b2208-en.pdf?expires=1730924972&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=01E65879986CE1F013D1C384B1BFE6A3
However, business organisations are already trying to undermine the directive during the transposition period which ends on 7 June 2026.
At the recent social partners summit, a leading business representative cited the gender pay transparency directive as an example of a ‘regulatory burden’ that should be targeted as part of the Commission’s deregulation agenda.
Their comments came despite the fact the Commission already limited gender pay reporting to organisations with over 250 staff at the behest of business lobbyists, which means two thirds of European workers are excluded from the measures.
ETUC Deputy General Secretary Isabelle Schömann said:
“Pay transparency is not a ‘regulatory burden’ but, as the evidence shows, an indispensable tool in dismantling the gender pay discrimination which male dominated board rooms have covered-up for too long. The real burden is the gender pay gap: Women workers pay the price for it their whole lives, as it leads to in-work poverty and the gender pension gap.
“Secrecy over pay levels has been crucial to the endurance of completely illogical differences in the rates of pay received by men and women in the same companies or doing the same job. Pay transparency rules and the enforcement of equal pay for work of equal value will make a real difference for women workers.
“On equal pay day, I urge member states to properly implement the pay transparency directive which will go a long way to help closing Europe’s shameful gender pay gap.
“Attempts by bosses to use the Commission’s new deregulation drive to stop pay transparency shows again how deregulation is incompatible with delivering on the EU’s own social policies.”
