A major EU directive over salary transparency must be written into Spain’s national law by June 7, 2026.
All member countries are obliged to adopt the legislation, which promises a huge shake-up of how companies are run.
EU directive 2023/970, approved in May 2023, forces firms to publish (internally) the salaries of their workers, meaning you’ll be able to compare your pay to that of your colleagues.
The timeline for companies to implement the new law is staggered depending on their size, however.
Firms with 250+ employees must comply by June 2027 and report every year, while those with 150–249 employees have until the same date but only have to report every three years.
If a company has 100–149 employees, then compliance is not required until June 2031.
Companies with fewer than 100 employees will not have any reporting obligations, unless the member state requires it.
The binding legal requirement is designed to tackle pay inequality – particularly the gender pay gap – across the EU.
Names will not be published, but rather the average salaries of positions within the company. If a firm has a gender pay gap of more than 5%, it will be required to take action or face sanctions.
One of the most important aspects of the directive is that it does not focus solely on base pay.
The term used is remuneration, which includes base salary, bonuses and performance incentives, extra payments (such as annual or quarterly bonuses) and benefits in kind, including company cars, housing, insurance and other perks.
The aim is to prevent inequalities being hidden in ‘extras’, a common practice in many sectors.
Another key shift is how pay comparisons are defined.
The law covers not only people doing the same job, but also those performing work of equal value.
This takes into account skills and qualifications, level of responsibility, effort required and working conditions.
In practice, this prevents companies from justifying pay differences through minor changes in job titles or descriptions.
Job adverts must include salary ranges
The changes also affect recruitment, as employers will be required to include a salary or salary range in job adverts, or at the very latest before the interview.
They must also stop asking candidates what they earned in previous jobs.
The EU considers salary history questions a key driver of long-term inequality, particularly for women.
It means the era of ‘salary to be discussed’ or ‘to be agreed’ is coming to an end in the EU.
Employees gain the right to ask
Workers will earn new powers as they will be entitled to request their own pay level and the average salary for colleagues doing the same or equivalent work.
Names will not be published – figures will be provided as averages – but in countries like Spain, where pay secrecy is still deeply ingrained, the cultural impact could be significant.
Smaller businesses face fewer obligations
Not every company will be affected in the same way, however.
Businesses with fewer than 50 employees may be exempt from some internal reporting duties.
Meanwhile, companies under 100 employees will generally not be required to submit regular reports.
