In the weeks since the EU Pay Transparency rules came into full effect, how have organisations responded to the change?

On 7 June, the implementation deadline passed for the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which requires EU employers to provider greater salary and pay transparency to job applicants and employees. The policy aims to reduce the gender pay gap, ensure fairer pay structures and create an atmosphere in which professionals and jobseekers can have open conversations about pay and other topics.  

Having first been adopted in 2023, countries were given three years to align themselves with the new rules and make any necessary changes. A month has gone by now since that final deadline, but what has changed?

Job search platform Mokaru analysed nearly 1.8m global job listings posted between the start of April and end of June on the career sites of 48,758 employers, across more than 46 applicant tracking systems. What was discovered is that nearly one month after the EU Pay Transparency Directive deadline, only 6.6pc of EU job ads were disclosing salary information. This is compared to 37.5pc in the US. 

“If you are job hunting in Europe, you already know the ritual, read the listing, scan for the salary, find nothing, apply anyway and hope the number at the end of four interview rounds does not waste everyone’s time,” read a statement from Mokaru. “Our data shows exactly how bad it is and how different it could be.”

Evolving landscapes

Canada and the US are leading the effort, with more than one-third (39.4pc and 37.5pc respectively) of listings in these countries disclosing salaries. For comparison, the UK was third with 21.6pc, followed by the Netherlands at 12.2pc, Australia at 11pc, Ireland at 10.7pc, France at 9.8pc and Austria at 9.4pc. 

Mokaru also found that numbers varied dramatically even in cases where employers from different regions were utilising the same job promotion platforms. For example, on Workday only 2.8pc of German employers chose to disclose salary information, compared to more than 43pc of US employers. 

Sweden lies at the bottom of the list, having the least transparent jobs market at just 0.4pc, or fewer than one in 200 job listings. Despite the law coming into effect and the European Commission sticking to the timeline, many countries have elected to push implementation to the start of 2027, with Sweden pausing implementation completely and calling for renegotiation.

Mokaru said: “To be fair to the directive, it is early days. Four weeks is not enough time to rewrite hiring workflows and in most member states the national law that actually binds employers is not yet in force, the bulk of implementations will land between now and January 2027, with enforcement and sanctions following later. 

“The honest conclusion from this data is not that the directive has failed, it is that, one month in, employer behaviour has not yet started to move.”

Rising trends

The research highlighted other patterns and trends that stood out, such as the impact the policy has had so far on remote job listings. What the data uncovered is that remote job listings in the EU are almost twice as likely to disclose salary (11.5pc), compared to on-site listings (6.2pc). 

The report said: “Employers hiring remotely compete in an international talent pool, one where US-style transparency is increasingly the norm. Competition is currently doing more for European pay transparency than regulation. In the US, the remote/on-site gap barely exists (39.5pc versus 37.4pc) – transparency laws there apply regardless of where the work happens.”

Looking at the data that is specific to Ireland, Mokaru also found that as seniority rises, transparency has a tendency to fall, as around 32.1pc of junior roles disclose salary, compared to 11.2pc of senior roles and 9.9pc of lead roles. 

“More than four in five Irish job ads keep candidates guessing and the higher the role, the quieter the ad.”

Ultimately, Mokaru’s experts are of the opinion that the burden of the European information gap falls largely on those who have the least negotiating power – invested candidates who cannot afford to walk away from multiple rounds of interviews “when the offer finally lands below their floor”.

And “until the directive has teeth”, European candidates should be aware of the factors that best indicate whether the role they are applying for is at a company likely to embrace the change in policy. 

So until then, be aware of your rights, look into remote-friendly opportunities and research market rates because even if your potential employer plans to keep you in the dark, the information is likely available elsewhere. 

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