Pay transparency has surged up the HR and reward agenda, fuelled by new rules and rising employee expectations.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive is helping to reshape the landscape, while UK employers face government plans to make ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting mandatory. Further changes are happening in America, where many states are pushing ahead with their own transparency requirements. Together, these developments are redefining how organisations approach pay.
EU Directive
Last week (27 August, 2025), Malta implemented directive compliant rules meaning employers operating there need to be more transparent. Now employers must provide job applicants with salary ranges before employment and workers can request their own pay and the pay of ‘categories of workers’ performing the same work. Further rules are expected as the country moves to implement the directive in full.
In January, Belgium implemented parts of the directive, but only for the public sector and only in the French community. However, the country already has requirements on salary reporting and more measures are expected.
More countries are expected to follow as EU member states have a deadline of 7 June 2026 to implement the directive into their domestic law.
Poland’s parliament has passed a bill to partially implement the directive that is scheduled to come into force on 24 December 2025. And a number of other EU members, including Sweden, Ireland and the Netherlands, have drafted legislation to implement the new requirements.
UK changes
Keir Starmer’s government plans to make ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting mandatory, following the model used for gender pay gap reporting.
Proposals outline phasing in greater pay reporting starting with the largest employers with 1,000 plus staff in 2027/28. The rules will then be extended to employers with 500–999 and eventually 250–499 employees. Under the plans, reports will need to include the data and an action plan showing how employers will address disparities, to be updated every 2-3 years.
In practice
To explore what this all means in practice, Benefits Expert is hosting a live webinar debate, Pay Transparency at the Tipping Point: The Shift You Can’t Ignore, on Thursday 4 September at 11:00am BST.
Speakers include Charlotte Williams, talent acquisition manager at Good Energy, Natalie Jutla, head of financial wellbeing and workplace strategy at Perkbox Vivup, Chris Andrew, communication consulting lead at Gallagher Benefit Services, and Sarah Jefferys, head of reward consulting at Gallagher UK, with chair Benefits Expert editor Claire Churchard.
The discussion will cover evolving EU and UK regulation, employee expectations, and how employers can use transparency to strengthen their employee value propositions. We’ll also explore how the rules intersect with ESG, DEI, pensions, and salary sacrifice schemes, along with practical insights on managing risk and measuring impact.
Registration for the Benefits Expert webinar ‘Pay Transparency at the Tipping Point: The Shift You Can’t Ignore’ is open now: https://bit.ly/4lhCpaQ
