Turning point for job offers in the EU: indicating salary to become compulsory

Gone are the days of "blind" job applications and questions about pay slips: under new EU rules on salary transparency, companies will be obliged to indicate salary when advertising a position.

How many times have you applied for a job without knowing how much you were going to earn? And how many times has the salary only been revealed at the end of a long selection process, after interviews, tests and weeks of anticipation?

For millions of European workers, this practice could soon be a thing of the past. With the entry the European directive on salary transparency, companies will be obliged to communicate the expected remuneration for a position in advance, thus putting an end to one of the most vague areas of the labor market.

This small revolution is designed not only to make the relationship between companies and candidates more transparent, but also to combat one of the most stubborn inequalities in the labour market: the pay gap between men and women.

Salary to be disclosed prior to interview

The most important innovation introduced by European Directive 2023/970 concerns the very moment of application. Jobseekers will have the right to know the starting salary for the position, or the corresponding salary scale, even before the interview.

This information may be included directly in the job offer, or provided by the employer prior to the meeting with the candidate. Upon request, it will also be possible to obtain details of the collective agreement applicable to the position. The aim is to enable people to evaluate a job offer in full knowledge of the facts, and to prevent wages becoming the subject of vague or discriminatory negotiations.

Companies will no longer be able to ask how much you used to earn

Among the most significant new features is the ban on employers asking applicants for information about their previous salary. This practice is still widespread and, according to the European Commission, contributes to perpetuating pay inequalities throughout working life.

If an employee has been underpaid in the past, basing a new proposal on their previous salary risks prolonging this penalization in subsequent jobs.

The new rules also require all recruitment procedures to be carried out according to neutral, non-discriminatory criteria.

In addition, the directive enshrines new rights for those already in post: employees will be able to request information on their level of remuneration and compare it with the average level of colleagues in the same position or those performing duties of equal value.

Data will have to be provided in aggregate and broken down by gender, to make it easier to identify any disparities.

For many, this will be the first concrete opportunity to check whether there are unjustified pay differences within the same company.