Reminder of the background to the Directive

The Pay Transparency Directive (Directive) aims to strengthen the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women and expands upon current Gender Pay Gap (GPG) reporting requirements. Pay transparency measures introduced by the Directive will empower workers to access information to challenge pay inequality within an organisation.

Ireland’s transposition status

Ireland did not meet the 7 June 2026 deadline to transpose the Directive into national law. In this article, we examine the status of its transposition into Irish law.

The Pay Transparency Bill (Bill) featured in the government’s Summer 2026 Legislation Programme, but was not listed as a priority item. The Minister for Children, Disability and Equality (Minister) has confirmed that work on Ireland’s transposing legislation is ongoing and that remaining work to achieve transposition is a priority for the Department of Children, Disability and Equality (Department). Until the Bill is drafted, there is no timeline for the transposition of the Directive.

Of some comfort to employers will be the Minister’s confirmation that employers will not be penalised because the transposition deadline was not met, and that the eventual implementation of the legislation will be on a phased basis.

The European Institute of Gender Equality and European Commission recently published a toolkit that provides templates and examples of how best to evaluate and classify roles depending on the organisation’s size (as required by the Directive). An Irish Employer Gender-Neutral Job Evaluation toolkit is being commissioned by the Department, with the Minister stating that employers will be invited to attend training workshops based on this adapted toolkit. No timeline has been announced regarding either the toolkit or the workshops.

Summary of the key obligations under the Directive

• Pre-employment obligations: Employers must disclose pay or pay ranges for advertised roles before interview. Job advertisements and job titles must be gender neutral. Employers may not ask candidates about their current or previous pay.
• Workers’ rights to pay information: Employers are required to make the criteria used to determine workers’ pay, pay levels and pay progression easily accessible to workers. The criteria should be objective and gender neutral. Workers can request information on their pay level and average pay levels, broken down by gender, for categories of workers performing the same work or work of equal value.
• Ban on pay secrecy clauses: Employers are not permitted to restrict workers from disclosing their rate of pay for the purpose of enforcing the principle of equal pay within an organisation.
• GPG Reporting and Joint Pay Assessments: Employers must report on GPG between categories of workers and conduct a joint pay assessment if certain gaps are identified.
• Equal pay claims: If a claim of unequal pay is asserted, the burden of proof will generally shift to the employer without requiring the employee to establish a prima facie case of discrimination where an employer has not implemented relevant pay transparency obligations. Compensation available to successful claimants will increase, allowing full recovery to put them in the position that they would have been in had there been no infringement of their equal pay rights. This is a significant increase to the existing remedies. Currently, the Workplace Relations Commission can make an award of a maximum of three years’ arrears of remuneration, while the Circuit Court can award a maximum of six years’ arrears of remuneration.

What can employers do now?

While the specifics of the Directive’s transposition in Ireland remain unclear without publication of the Bill, there are a number of practical preparatory steps that employers could consider:

• Review recruitment practices because employers will be (i) required to inform job applicants about pay or pay ranges, (ii) prohibited from including pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts, and (iii) prohibited from asking job applicants questions about pay history during the recruitment process.
• Review whether their organisation has clearly defined categories of workers and if not, identify such categories. Employers may consider commencing a job analysis, which can be done while transposing legislation is awaited, to ensure that accurate and up-to-date information about the roles in the organisation is available.
• Review existing pay practices across categories of workers, when established.
• Review whether any existing GPG within the organisation is justified on the basis of objective, gender-neutral criteria and if not, review how it can be remedied.

For more information, please contact a member of our Employment, Pensions & Incentives team or reach out to your usual William Fry contact.