EU Pay Transparency Directive readiness assessment
Twelve questions on how your company sets and explains pay, each based on an article of the Directive. You see the result straight after the last answer.
How many people work for your company?
Count employees on employment contracts. Some obligations depend on company size.
About the assessment
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (EU) 2023/970 requires employers to give applicants the pay range before the interview, stop asking about pay history, make pay criteria visible to employees and answer their requests for pay information within two months. Employers with 100 or more workers also report their gender pay gap. This free assessment checks your company against those obligations in twelve questions.
What does the EU Pay Transparency Directive require?
Four areas and twelve questions, each based on an article of the Directive. This is the full content of the assessment.
Pay structure
Whether you can say who does the same work or work of equal value, and by what criteria pay is set.
- We have grouped all roles into categories of workers who do the same work or work of equal value.
- Pay for each role is set against written criteria: skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
Hiring
What applicants learn about pay and what they are asked.
- Applicants learn the starting pay or its range for the role before the job interview, for example in the job ad.
- Nobody in our hiring process asks applicants what they earn now or earned before.
- Our job ads and job titles are gender-neutral.
Transparency to employees
What employees can see about pay and how you answer their questions.
- Employees can easily find the criteria we use to set pay, pay levels and pay progression.
- We could answer an employee's written request for their pay level and the average pay by sex in their category within two months.
- Every year we tell all employees that they may request this information and how to do it.
- Our contracts and policies do not stop employees from disclosing their own pay.
Pay gap and evidence
Whether you know your gender pay gap and can explain it.
- We know the gender pay gap within each category of workers, including bonuses and other variable pay.
- For every difference in average pay of 5 % or more between women and men in a category, we can show the objective, gender-neutral reason.
- For any employee, we can show which criteria their pay is based on.
How is the score calculated?
The average of all twelve questions; each carries the same weight. Every answer carries a compliance percentage and the score is their average. The band drops to the lowest one if too many answers are “We don't have it”.
- We don't have it
- 0 %
- Informally
- 40 %
- On paper
- 70 %
- Works, with evidence
- 100 %
The assessment has 12 scored questions and 2 questions about your company that do not count towards the score. The full method, including how the company type is derived and what is stored, is described in the assessment methodology.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The Directive applies to all employers in the public and private sectors (Article 2). The rules on pay information for applicants, pay criteria for employees and the right to information apply regardless of size. Member States may exempt employers with fewer than 50 workers from the pay progression part of Article 6. Gender pay gap reporting applies only from 100 workers (Article 9).
Under Article 9, employers with 250 or more workers report by 7 June 2027 and every year after that. Employers with 150 to 249 workers report by 7 June 2027 and then every three years. Employers with 100 to 149 workers report by 7 June 2031 and then every three years. Each report covers the previous calendar year. Your national law sets the exact procedure.
If the report shows a difference in average pay of at least 5 % in any category of workers, the employer has not justified it on objective, gender-neutral criteria and has not remedied it within six months, the employer must carry out a joint pay assessment with workers' representatives (Article 10).
No. Article 5(2) says an employer shall not ask applicants about their pay history in their current or previous employment. Applicants instead have the right to learn the initial pay or its range for the position, for example in the job ad or before the interview.
Member States had until 7 June 2026 to adopt national laws (Article 34), and many were late. National laws can go further than the Directive and set their own dates and details. The official list of national measures is on EUR-Lex (linked in the sources below). This assessment checks the Directive's requirements, which every national law has to include.
It is free, with no sign-up, and you see the full result straight away. It is a self-assessment based on the text of the Directive, not legal advice. For decisions about your company, check your national law.
Sources
Aptiness editorial team · built from the official texts cited belowContent reviewed September 2026Assessment methodology