Poland takes another step toward pay transparency with the partial implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive

The intensifying public debate on equal pay prompted the European Union to adopt the Pay Transparency Directive. The main objective of the regulation is to reduce the gender pay gap, which averages almost 13% across the EU. Among other things, the provisions extend the employees’ rights and increase employers’ responsability to ensure fair and equal working conditions and pay.

Member States have until 7 June 2026 to fully implement the directive into their legal systems.

Main objectives of the regulation

The overarching objective of the EU regulation is to increase pay transparency, which is intended to help combat discrimination and reduce the gender pay gap. The obligation to disclose certain information is intended to facilitate the detection of unjustified disparities and increase employees' opportunities to actively participate in pay negotiations. These issues were discussed in detail in this previous article on pay transparency.

Some of the provisions of the directive have already been implemented into Polish law: the amendment to the Labour Code entered into force on 24 December 2025.

The new provisions introduced the obligation to provide job applicants with information on remuneration (its initial amount or range based on objective, neutral criteria) and the relevant provisions of the collective labour agreement or remuneration regulations, if such internal acts are in force at the employer. The information must be provided to the candidate in advance, ensuring informed and transparent negotiations before the employment relationship is established (however, there is no obligation to include this information explicitly in the job advertisement).

Employers are also obliged to ensure gender-neutral job titles and to ensure that the recruitment process is non-discriminatory. However, the new regulations do not specify how to formulate a job offer in a gender-neutral manner, which means that in practice, different solutions are emerging (more on this later in the article). The amendment also introduced a ban on requesting information from candidates about their current or previous remuneration.

The current amendments to the Labour Code cover only part of the provisions of the directive. However, even this partial implementation raises certain doubts and has led to the development of various solutions to meet the obligations imposed on employers by the EU legislator.

Current implementation challenges

At the current stage of implementation of EU regulations in Poland, the main area of change is recruitment processes. It should be remembered that, under the new regulations, an employer does not have the right to ask a job applicant for information about their remuneration in their current and previous employment relationships. This does not mean that employers cannot ask candidates about their financial expectations for the new position.

The impact of the new regulations on the way job advertisements are formulated is clearly visible on recruitment portals. Employers are trying to meet their obligation of neutrality, and in this regard, it is worth presenting a few solutions that may help to develop correct practices.

• The use of descriptive forms, which eliminate the need to use a word that refers to a specific profession, which often traditionally appears only in masculine or feminine form. For example (in Polish): "Osoba do obsługi sekretariatu" instead of "Sekretarka".
• Using English job titles, which are largely gender-neutral. For example, "in-house lawyer" instead of "prawnik wewnętrzny".
• If in Polish there are forms that sound natural for both genders to describe a given position, they should be included, and therefore the advertisement should say: "Specjalista / Specjalistka" and not just one of the two.
• An alternative to the above methods is to add the letters K (woman - in Polish “kobieta”) and M (man - in Polish “mężczyzna”), which clearly indicates that the position is open to both genders. For example: "IT specialist (k/m)".

Employers must remember that the requirement of language neutrality applies not only to headlines, but to entire job advertisements. It is worth bearing this in mind and consistently adhering to the accepted terminology. Furthermore, it is recommended to refrain from including graphics/images/other content suggesting a specific gender (e.g., depicting a woman in a secretarial role, a man behind a desk, etc.) in advertisements, as well as from using terms traditionally associated with a particular gender (e.g., "leader", "empathetic"...).

Further implementation of the directive in Poland

The above-mentioned amendment to the Labour Code covers only part of the provisions of the directive, which is to be fully implemented into the Polish legal system by 7 June 2026. Particular attention should be paid to the new reporting obligations, which may initially prove challenging for employers. It is therefore advisable to prepare for these changes now.

The Directive stipulates that large employers (250+ employees) should report annually on the pay gap. Medium-sized employers (100 to 249 employees) are only required to do so once every three years. Employers with fewer than 100 employees will, in principle, be exempt from this obligation. However, Member States have some discretion in this regard and may extend this obligation.

If the pay gap exceeds 5%, cannot be objectively justified, and is not eliminated within six months, an in-depth pay audit conducted together with employee representatives will be necessary. The report prepared as a result of this exercise should be made available to employees and external bodies.

A special expert team has been set up to implement the remaining solutions, including those concerning pay gap reporting, into the Polish legal system. As part of its work, discussions are being held on the creation of a tool to help employers comply with their reporting obligations.

In addition, work is also underway to create a tool for job evaluation. Job evaluation involves determining the relative weight of positions within a given organisation. According to the directive, "work of equal value" is work that is determined to be of equal value according to non-discriminatory and objective criteria that are neutral in terms of gender.

The EU legislator has introduced four mandatory assessment criteria as a minimum requirement, on the basis of which the employer will determine whether employees are in a comparable situation in terms of the value of their work. These are: skills, effort, scope of responsibility and working conditions. However, this is not a closed list; if the workplace or job requires it, the employer may extend it. On the basis of criteria that are to be objective and neutral, the employer will assess the jobs, group the employees into categories and then determine their remuneration on that basis. Employers may remunerate employees performing the same work or work of equal value differently, provided that they are guided by objective and neutral criteria such as achievements and competences. Member States are required to take measures to ensure that the analytical tools or methods used to carry out these tasks are made available and easily accessible.

As part of the work on the comprehensive implementation of the Directive, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has prepared a draft guide entitled "Guidelines for assessing and comparing the value of work in accordance with the four criteria adopted in Directive 2023/970" and a draft valuation tool. However, it should be emphasised that the use of these aids is not mandatory. Employers may choose any method of job evaluation, provided that it complies with the law.

In December 2025, a draft law implementing the remaining provisions of Directive 2023/970 was published. For the most part, it replicates the provisions of the EU regulation. Interestingly, unlike the first stage of implementation, in this case, a new law is to be adopted rather than an amendment to the Labour Code. The draft is currently at the consultation stage (project number according to the information of the Government Legislation Centre: UC127).