The European Pay Transparency Directive will transform the way employers manage and justify pay. It is one of the clearest examples of compliance entering the HR field — and of why people governance belongs on the same platform as the rest of the programme.

What is required

• Salary transparency for candidates and staff, including salary ranges.
• Reporting on the gender pay gap based on defined thresholds.
• Objective and gender-neutral criteria for pay and career progression.
• A joint review of remuneration where unjustified disparities are found.

The challenge of evidence

The tricky bit isn’t the calculation — it’s demonstrating, with an audit trail, that your remuneration decisions are based on objective criteria. This means versioned pay bands, documented justifications and evidence of corrective action where disparities arise.

What to implement now

• Salary band governance with documented and auditable criteria.
• An analysis of pay disparities that may recur and become apparent over time.
• Remediation plans linked to findings, with designated persons and deadlines.
• A clean record of decisions and justifications.

Because it is part of governance, not a silo

Pay transparency takes precedence over the GDPR (HR data), equality legislation and, increasingly, the AI Act when remuneration or career progression involves automated scoring. Run it through the same compliance engine, and the evidence it produces for one obligation supports the others — rather than setting up a standalone HR project that nobody links to the wider programme.