Pay reporting: bands, data points and deadlines (Article 9)

Pay reporting is the visible part of the Pay Transparency Directive: an employer above a certain size must, at fixed intervals, measure and report the gender pay gap. Here is who must report, when, and what the report covers - under Article 9. The duties on recruitment and information apply more broadly and do not depend on how many workers you have.

Who reports, and when

The reporting duty falls into four bands by number of workers. The dates below are fixed calendar dates in the directive (Article 9) - they are calibrated to the transposition deadline of 7 June 2026, not calculated as “a number of years after each individual Member State’s transposition”.

Note the two things most often confused: the two largest bands have the same first deadline (7 June 2027), but different cadence (annually versus every 3 years); and the 100–149 band has a later first deadline (7 June 2031), not 2027.

What you must report

The report covers seven data points on the gender pay gap (Article 9(1), points (a)–(g)). They are all about making the difference between women’s and men’s pay measurable - not only as a single average, but also broken down:

• the gender pay gap measured on total pay,
• the gap in variable and supplementary pay components (bonuses, allowances, benefits in kind),
• the median pay gap - the gap measured on the median, not only the average,
• the median gap in the variable and supplementary pay components,
• the proportion of female and male workers who receive variable and supplementary pay components,
• the proportion of female and male workers in each pay quartile band (the total pay mass divided into four equal parts),
• the pay gap broken down by categories of workers, split between ordinary basic pay and variable and supplementary pay components.

That the gap must be measured both as an average and as a median, and both overall and per group of workers, is not a formality: a small average gap can conceal a large gap in a single group. That is the kind of gap the joint pay assessment can trigger - see Joint pay assessment and the 5% trigger.

The mechanics: fixed dates, not “X years after transposition”

This is worth highlighting, because it is often reproduced incorrectly: the deadlines in Article 9 are fixed calendar dates. An employer with 250+ workers must report for the first time by 7 June 2027 at the latest, regardless of when each individual Member State manages to transpose the directive. It also means that a delayed Danish transposition does not in itself shift the directive’s dates - but which concrete duties and methods of measurement apply to you as a Danish employer are set out in the Danish law.

Under 100 workers

If you have under 100 workers, there is no EU-imposed reporting duty (Article 9(5)). Two things do still apply, however: Member States may not prevent you from reporting voluntarily, and they may, in national law, require reporting from smaller employers. Read “no EU duty”, therefore, as a floor, not as an exemption - the Danish law can add a duty on top.

The Danish transposition determines the details (draft)

The Danish draft bill (consultation 71101) proposes a different structure from the directive’s minimum - including a base threshold of 100+ workers, a conditional extension to 50–99 under further conditions, that Statistics Denmark prepares the statement, and a first report on 1 September 2028 for the largest bands and 1 September 2031 for the smaller ones. All of this is draft, not applicable law, and is dealt with together in The Danish transposition - draft, not applicable law.

Reporting is not the whole picture

The bands above concern only the reporting itself. The right to a pay range in recruitment, the prohibition on asking about pay history, and the worker’s right to information apply more broadly and do not depend on the number of employees. And whether or not you report, it is the maintained, gender-neutral documentation you must be able to produce if a pay gap is challenged - because the directive shifts the burden of proof. See Burden of proof.