EU pay transparency directive aims to reduce gender pay gaps; Lithuania and others are implementing changes with varying timelines.
🔗 Read the article on delfi.lt
[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]
The European Union’s Directive on Pay Transparency, adopted in May 2023 to reduce gender pay gaps and ensure equal pay for equal or equivalent work, introduces several key elements: the right to salary information before hiring, prohibition of employers asking about past salaries, banning confidentiality agreements regarding pay, employees’ right to compare their pay with colleagues of the opposite sex doing similar work, mandatory reporting of gender pay gaps by companies with at least 100 employees, general pay evaluation when discrimination is suspected, and strengthened enforcement measures including penalties and shifting the burden of proof to employers. Lithuania has become the second EU member state after Slovakia to fully transpose this directive into national law, setting deadlines for implementation in 2026, 2027, and 2028. Employees can request salary data from employers covering annual and hourly wages, as well as average pay within their job group by gender; violations can lead to compensation including full unpaid wages and damages. Other EU countries show varied progress: Austria is significantly behind due to opposition from employer representatives who argue the directive adds excessive bureaucracy, while Sweden has paused implementation citing alignment with existing national models. Ireland plans to implement it quickly without immediate penalties for non-compliance, and Spain has a draft ready for review.
