← Pay transparency rules / The Pay Transparency Directive - overview
Theme · Danish transposition · the Equal Pay ActDraft - not adopted
The Danish transposition - draft, not applicable law
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.
Reviewed June 2026 · basis: Bill amending the Equal Pay Act - draft in external consultation (Hoeringsportalen 71101)
It is the Danish law that decides what you, as a Danish employer, must concretely do - not the directive on its own. And the Danish law so far exists only as a draft. This page collects what the draft proposes, and how far it has got. Read it as a proposal, not as applicable law.
Status: draft in consultation
The rules are proposed to be introduced into the Equal Pay Act by the Bill amending the Equal Pay Act, which transposes Directive (EU) 2023/970 (and parts of Directive (EU) 2024/1500). The draft was in external consultation on Hoeringsportalen (consultation 71101), published 26 February 2026 with a consultation deadline of 27 March 2026, and was issued by the Ministry of Employment and Gender Equality.
The draft proposes entry into force on 1 January 2027 (proposed § 4) - and itself notes that this is after the directive’s deadline of 7 June 2026, so the directive is “not transposed on time”. A general election was held on 24 March 2026, while the consultation was running, which adds uncertainty to the timetable. The structure below is the proposed Equal Pay Act.
Thresholds, bands and cadence (proposed §§ 5 a–5 c)
- Base threshold: 100+ workers (proposed § 5 a): “An employer with at least 100 workers must prepare a pay report…”
- Conditional extension to 50–99 (proposed § 5 b(6)): only where there are “at least 8 workers of each sex in the same category of workers as measured by the 6-digit DISCO code or an equivalent classification system”, and with agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing excluded. A flat reading of “applies to everyone with 50+” is therefore wrong.
- Cadence (proposed § 5 c):
| Size | First report | Thereafter |
|---|---|---|
| 250+ workers | 1 September 2028 | every year |
| 150–249 workers | 1 September 2028 | every 3 years |
| 100–149 (and qualifying 50–99) | 1 September 2031 | every 3 years |
Note that the Danish dates (1 September 2028 / 2031) are not the same as the directive’s own calendar dates (7 June 2027 / 2031, see Pay reporting).
Statistics Denmark prepares the report (proposed § 5 b)
Under the draft, it is Statistics Denmark - or an employers’ organisation that receives the data - that prepares and sends the pay report free of charge, grouped by 6-digit DISCO code or an equivalent system. The explanatory notes themselves concede that the DISCO code alone “will often not be sufficient”. DISCO is therefore a grouping tool in the reporting - not the measure of whether two jobs are of the same value (see Work of equal value).
The other obligations
- Joint pay assessment (proposed § 5 f(2)): required where there is an unexplained average gap of at least 5% in a category of workers, that has not been remedied within six months. See Joint pay assessment.
- Recruitment (proposed § 1 c): a right to information on the starting pay or pay range and a prohibition on asking about pay history. See Recruitment and pay history.
- Basis of comparison (proposed § 1(3) and § 1 a(9)-(10)): the four gender-neutral factors - not the DISCO code.
- Reversed burden of proof (proposed § 6(3)-(4)): a lack of openness shifts the burden of proof; the existing § 6(2) is unchanged. See Burden of proof.
Enforcement: compensation, not new fines
The draft introduces no new fines. The only penalty provision is the retained § 6 b (“shall be liable to a fine”), whose references are merely updated (transposition of Article 23). The new duties are instead backed by compensation (proposed §§ 2-3, including a standalone compensation under proposed § 3(5) for breach of information obligations - even without a proven pay gap) and by the reversed burden of proof. No amount in kroner is fixed. See Penalties, compensation and the complaint route.
New authority (proposed § 7)
The draft establishes Arbejdsmarkedets Institut for Ligeløn (the labour-market institute for equal pay) as the national equal-treatment and monitoring authority (the old §§ 7-8 are repealed and merged). The limitation provision is inserted as § 6 c (a heading discrepancy in the draft calls it “§ 6 d” - the correct reference is § 6 c).
Re-verify before you act
Because everything on this page is a draft that is moving, every point must be checked against the primary source before you use it:
- Has an L-numbered bill been tabled? Search ft.dk and retsinformation.dk.
- Have thresholds and dates changed compared with the draft? Compare with consultation 71101 on Hoeringsportalen.
- Has the law been adopted and entered into force? Only then is it applicable law.
Read also
Other pages on the Pay Transparency Directive in the same theme.
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.
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.
- Bill amending the Equal Pay Act - draft in external consultation (Hoeringsportalen 71101) - draft - not adopted; published 26 February 2026, consultation deadline 27 March 2026
- Directive (EU) 2023/970 - official reference (ELI) · CELEX 32023L0970
- The Danish Parliament - search tabled bills (re-verify the L-number)
- retsinformation.dk - the state legal information system (check for the adopted law)
Corrections and changes
Rules and sources move. We update the page when they do and note each change with a date - so you can see what changed, and when.
- Page created. Basis: Bill amending the Equal Pay Act, draft in external consultation (Hoeringsportalen 71101). Draft, not adopted. As at 23 June 2026 no L-numbered bill has been confirmed as tabled, and nothing appears on retsinformation.dk.
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