The EU Pay Transparency Directive and the Irish Landscape

The EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970) represents a paradigm shift in how compensation is managed, moving beyond simple disclosure to active enforcement of equal pay for work of equal value. For Irish employers, the clock is ticking toward a June 7, 2026, deadline for national transposition.

Ireland’s Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 has already somewhat prepared employers for annual reporting and has brought into effect a significant portion of the Directive, particularly in relation to Article 9 on Gender Pay Gap Reporting.

Further, the General Scheme of the Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill was published in early 2025, outlining substantial changes for HR practitioners, including provisions to transpose Article 5 of the Directive regarding the provision of information on salary to potential employees. However, the General Scheme is not yet published, having been referred to Pre-Legislative Scrutiny in June 2025, which was completed in October 2025, and officials are considering the recommendations in the Pre-Legislative Scrutiny report.

The Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill (specifically Head 4) seeks to make it a legal requirement to provide salary ranges in job advertisements. The Directive explicitly prohibits prospective employers from asking candidates about their pay history in previous roles, so employers cannot ask what a candidate earned in their current or past jobs to determine their new salary offer. Head 5 intends to transpose this prohibition directly.

The remainder of the Directive contains a number of complex issues which as yet there is limited guidance on for employers. For example, if a report reveals a gender pay gap of 5% or more that cannot be objectively justified, employers are legally mandated to conduct a joint pay assessment with worker representatives to implement corrective action. Unlike existing Irish law, the Directive shifts the burden of proof to the employer in pay discrimination cases, meaning companies must be able to demonstrate that their pay structures are based on objective, gender-neutral criteria such as skills, effort, and responsibility. This will require a robust job architecture and a move away from managerial discretion in favour of transparent pay scales. Beyond compliance, the right to information allows any employee to request the average pay levels for categories of workers doing the same work, broken down by sex. To mitigate the challenges posed by these changes, HR departments must begin auditing their internal pay equity now, training managers to handle sensitive compensation conversations, and ensuring their data systems are capable of the complex categorisations required by the new EU standard.

While Ibec is working hard to support members on the upcoming changes, in the absence of required detail, in the form of transposing legislation, tools and methodologies for carrying out job categorisation, it is very difficult for employers to adequately prepare. Ibec have emphasised our concerns that costly mistakes will be made by employers in their good faith efforts to prepare for compliance with the Directive given the lack of legislation and guidance on many of the key provisions.

In the absence of any certainty on likely timelines for transposition, employers are placed in the difficult position of having to continue to devote significant resources and incur substantial costs in continuing their efforts to prepare for the Directive.

The Department of Children, Disability and Equality said:

• It “will work with employers, employees and their representatives in the implementation of the Directive, which will be on a phased basis”.
• Employers “will not be penalised for not having all elements of Directive completed in June 2026”
• It “will be working with stakeholders to communicate this message.”
• It “is also aware of the need to ensure that employers are aware of their obligations under the Directive. There will be opportunities in the near future for stakeholders, particularly employers, to engage with the Department on issues such as available supports, as we move into the next phases of the transposition process.”

Where we are now

The Department is developing a General Scheme to transpose the remaining elements of this Directive into Irish law and is continuing to work on additional measures to assist with the transposition of the Directive as soon as possible.

The Department has faced challenges due to the delay in the finalisation of Commission guidance, and in particular the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) toolkit, which has had a knock-on effect with regards the publication and rollout of a national toolkit on job categorisation. Following the publication of the national job categorisation toolkit, which is been expected in the coming weeks, the Department is expected to start workshops to assist employers in carrying out a job evaluation exercise.

Ibec also continues to lobby at a European level, both through Business Europe and directly with MEPs. The current proposal is:

• A request for a “stop the clock” looks to delay the transposition of the directive in order to provide sufficient time for a proportionate and workable implementation, while also allowing for the exploration of potential simplification measures. The suggestion is for a two-year delay. This request may be put to the European Commission with copies sent to Member State governments, the European Parliament, and other relevant stakeholders.
• A request for a simplification agenda to ensure that the objectives of the Directive are achieved, but that various Articles are amended to ensure the Directive is workable.