The right to pay information and the two-month deadline (Article 7)

The right to pay information is the obligation most likely to hit an employer first - it does not depend on how many workers you have, and it can be triggered by a single written request. Here is what a worker may request to be told under Article 7, how quickly you must reply, and what you may not prevent.

What a worker may request to be told

A worker may in writing request to be told (Article 7):

• their own pay level, and
• the average pay levels broken down by sex for the categories of workers performing the same work as them or work of equal value.

The broken-down average is the point: the individual must be able to see whether women and men doing comparable work are, on average, paid the same. What makes work comparable is determined by the gender-neutral criteria - see Work of equal value.

You must reply within two months

The employer must provide the information within two months of the request (Article 7(4)). Two months is short if the figures only have to be compiled once the request arrives. In practice the deadline means that the broken-down, gender-neutral pay levels must be something you already keep up to date - not something you calculate from scratch each time. That is one of the reasons maintained documentation is worth having in place before anyone asks.

You must inform workers of the right yourself - every year

The right is not only something the worker has to know about themselves. The employer must every year inform workers that they have the right to request the information, and of how they do so (Article 7(3)). The annual reminder is an active duty, not a passive option.

The ban on pay secrecy

Workers must not be prevented from disclosing their own pay where the purpose is to enforce the principle of equal pay (Article 7(5)). It is a self-standing rule - not its own article, but a paragraph in Article 7 - and it means that a secrecy or confidentiality clause about pay cannot stand in the way of someone challenging possible discrimination. A contractual provision that attempts to do so does not hold up against the rule.

If you do not reply

Replying to a request is one of the transparency obligations whose failure to meet can shift the burden of proof onto the employer - see Burden of proof. In the Danish draft, the information obligations are also backed by compensation: the draft proposes a self-standing compensation for breach of information obligations, even without a demonstrated pay gap (proposed § 3(5)). It is draft, not applicable law - see Penalties, compensation and the right to complain and The Danish implementation.