EU coverage · Updated October 2026
Hiring in the EU? Your postings have a new standard to meet.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive requires applicants to see the pay range before the interview — and the strictest national implementations put it in the job ad itself. PayTransparency checks your postings against that standard alongside every US state law.
Check a posting now → Paste any job posting into the free validator and get an instant verdict for the EU disclosure standard plus every US state and city law — no signup required.
What the directive requires in hiring
- Pay disclosure to applicants
- Initial pay or range before the interview — in the posting or another pre-interview channel, per member state
- Salary-history questions
- Banned in every member state’s implementation
- Gender-neutral postings
- Vacancy notices and job titles must be gender-neutral
- Pay-gap reporting
- Phased from June 2027 — annually at 250+ employees, every 3 years at 100–249
- In force today
- Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania, Malta — with the rest of the EU legislating through 2027
Why put the range in the posting
The directive lets each member state choose where the pre-interview disclosure happens, and the implementing laws differ. Publishing the range in the ad is the one approach that satisfies every national version at once — and it is what US state laws already require for most multi-state postings. One standard, one workflow, no per-country exceptions to maintain. For the full legal picture, read our EU directive guide.
Where each country stands (October 2026)
The directive had to be written into national law by 7 June 2026. Most member states missed that date, so what applies to a posting depends on the country. Based on law-firm transposition trackers as of October 2026:
| Status | Countries |
|---|---|
| Fully transposed | Slovakia, Italy, Lithuania, Greece, Malta (reported; least certain) |
| Partly in force | Poland, Belgium (public sector only so far), Czechia, Estonia |
| Draft law in progress | France, Ireland, Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Spain, Portugal, Bulgaria, Cyprus and others |
| No draft published | Germany, Austria, Hungary, Luxembourg |
| Opposed | Sweden (seeking renegotiation at EU level) |
Trackers disagree on a few countries (Malta in particular), and national laws can phase obligations in: Greece’s law is in force, but most employer duties start 1 November 2026. Check the national law before relying on a country’s status. Where a country hasn’t transposed yet, putting the range in the job ad is still the safest way to meet the directive’s “before the interview” standard once it does. Hiring in Canada too? See Canada’s provincial posting laws.
How PayTransparency handles EU roles
The validator checks every posting against the directive’s posting-disclosure standard — is there a concrete pay range, is it specific enough to inform negotiation — and flags salary-history language. Because member-state penalties are still being defined, EU violations are shown without a fine estimate until national schedules land; when they do, our rules engine picks them up within five business days, and paid plans alert you when a change affects one of your open postings. Track those changes on the law news page.
Hiring on both sides of the Atlantic? Run your open roles through the free validator, or see pricing for continuous monitoring across the EU and every US state — 14-day free trial, no card required.