Pay transparency: rules, obligations and deadlines
The EU Pay Transparency Directive is in force, but the Danish implementing act is still a draft. Here are our pages on what the directive requires, what the Danish draft proposes, and why maintained documentation is your defence - each with primary sources and a named byline.
In force (EU law)
The Pay Transparency Directive - overview
What the EU Pay Transparency Directive requires of a Danish employer - gender pay-gap reporting, joint pay assessment, transparency about the pay range, and the ban on asking about pay history - and why maintained documentation is your evidence. A draft for professional review, not legal advice.
Go deeper
Detailed pages on the individual obligations - each with its own primary sources.
In force (EU law)
Pay reporting: bands and deadlines
Who must report the gender pay gap, when, and what the report covers - the four size bands and the seven data points in Article 9. The deadlines are fixed calendar dates in the directive, not a number of years after the Danish transposition.
In force (EU law)
Joint pay assessment: the 5% trigger
When an employer must carry out a joint pay assessment together with workers' representatives: the three conditions in Article 10 - an unexplained average gender pay gap of at least 5% in a category of workers, not remedied within six months.
In force (EU law)
Right to pay information
The worker's right to obtain, in writing, their own pay level and the average pay levels broken down by sex for the same work - and the employer's duty to reply within two months. Plus the annual duty to inform and the ban on preventing anyone from speaking about their own pay.
In force (EU law)
Recruitment and pay history
Job applicants have the right to be told the starting pay or pay range before the interview, and the employer may not ask about their pay history. The obligations in Article 5 apply broadly - regardless of how many employees you have.
In force (EU law)
Work of equal value
Equal pay applies to the same work and to work of equal value. What makes two jobs comparable is decided by four gender-neutral factors - skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions - not by the job title and not by the DISCO code. This is the concept on which every threshold and the 5 % trigger depends.
In force (EU law)
Burden of proof
The Directive shifts the burden of proof. Tell apart the three rules in Article 18 - the prima facie shift, the shift where transparency is lacking, and the exclusion for criminal proceedings - and see why maintained, gender-neutral documentation is what you actually need to be able to produce.
Draft - not adopted
The Danish transposition (draft)
The Danish bill that is to transpose the Pay Transparency Directive into the Equal Pay Act: status in the consultation, the proposed thresholds (100+, conditional 50–99), the cadence (first report 2028/2031), the role of Statistics Denmark, the new authority and enforcement through compensation - all of it draft, not adopted.
In force (EU law)
Penalties and compensation
What happens when the equal pay rules are not complied with: access to justice, who may bring the claim, the right to full compensation with no cap, periodic penalty payments, the penalties floor in Article 23 (with no amount set in the directive) and exclusion from public contracts. Plus the Danish line: compensation, not new fines.
Primary sources
We cite primary sources and date-stamp them. Only the Danish version of an EU instrument has legal force.
- Directive (EU) 2023/970 - official reference (ELI) · CELEX 32023L0970
- Bill amending the Equal Pay Act - draft out for consultation (Hoeringsportalen 71101) - draft, not adopted
A draft for professional review
Our rules content is a solid, sourced starting point - not legal advice. For decisive choices, consult a qualified adviser.