For several years, pay has remained a deeply rooted taboo in French workplace culture. People do not talk about how much they earn, salary ranges are not shown in job ads, and it is quietly accepted that two colleagues doing the same work can be paid differently. All of this is about to change radically, thanks to a European directive that is set to transform pay practices in depth by the end of 2026.

A directive created to fight pay inequalities

European Directive 2023/970 on pay transparency was adopted on May 10, 2023 by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. Its objective is clear: to reduce the pay gaps between women and men that persist despite decades of legislation on workplace equality.

In France, women still earn on average 16 to 17% less than their male counterparts. Part of this gap can be explained by differences in working time or sectors of activity, but a significant share remains unexplained — and therefore potentially discriminatory. This is exactly what the directive aims to correct, by imposing a level of transparency that voluntary measures have never managed to establish.

What changes concretely for employees

The right to know the salary range from the job offer

This is probably the most visible change. All job offers will have to state the pay range or starting salary offered for the position. Vague wording such as "salary depending on profile" or "to be negotiated" will simply be banned.

For candidates, this is a practical revolution: no more interviews where you only discover at the end of the process that the proposed salary is below your expectations. For employers, it means having to clearly define the value they assign to a position before even publishing the vacancy.

The end of questions about salary history

The directive formally bans employers from asking candidates what they earned in their previous job. This common practice in many French companies tends to perpetuate inequalities: a woman who was underpaid in a previous position often ends up underpaid in the next one, because the negotiation starts from a biased base.

From now on, salary negotiations will have to be based on the value of the position — not on the person's history.

The right to compare your pay with colleagues

Every employee will be able to ask their employer for information about their individual pay level, but also about average pay levels, broken down by sex, for categories of workers doing equivalent work. In other words: if you suspect unequal treatment, you will now have concrete means to investigate it.

What changes for companies

A reporting obligation depending on company size

Companies are not all in the same position, but none are exempt from the basic obligations. The common foundation applies to all companies, including very small businesses and SMEs with fewer than 50 employees: display of salary ranges, ban on salary history, and employees' right to information.

For reporting gender pay gaps, the calendar is progressive:

• More than 250 employees: mandatory annual report on pay gaps
• 100 to 250 employees: report every three years
• Fewer than 100 employees: lighter obligations, but the basic rules apply

A gap of more than 5%: obligation to act

If an unjustified pay gap of more than 5% is found between women and men for the same work, the company will have to either justify it with objective criteria or eliminate it. In the event of a dispute, the employer will have to prove that there was no discrimination — not the employee prove that there was. This is a major reversal of the burden of proof.

Penalties for breaches will be administrative fines, either proportional to the payroll or fixed according to the seriousness of the failure.

Timeline: what is happening in France

The directive was to be transposed into the national law of each Member State by June 7, 2026 at the latest. In France, the process has been delayed: the Ministry of Labour sent a first version of the bill to the social partners in March 2026, but the busy parliamentary calendar is pushing final adoption back to late 2026 or early 2027.

This delay does not mean that companies can wait. Those that want to anticipate — and avoid a rushed compliance process — would be wise to start auditing their salary grids and reviewing their recruitment practices now.

A change in culture as much as in rules

Beyond legal obligations, this directive raises a deeper question: are we ready, in France, to talk openly about salaries? Nordic countries, where salary transparency has been a cultural norm for decades, have some of the lowest gender pay gaps in Europe. That is probably not a coincidence.

Salary transparency will not solve all workplace inequalities by itself. But it removes one of the conditions that allows them to exist: opacity. When everyone knows what others earn, discrimination becomes much harder to maintain.

Key takeaway: European Directive 2023/970 requires, from the end of 2026, salary ranges to be displayed in job offers, bans salary history questions, and gives every employee the right to compare their pay. A historic turning point for workplace equality in France.