EU workers want to learn about their pay, even if employers aren’t prepared to share

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Under new pay transparency legislation that took effect on June 7, employees in the European Union have the right to request information about their pay.

When employers receive these requests, they must provide details on the employee’s individual pay level, as well as average pay levels for workers doing comparable work, including a breakdown by gender.

Employers must answer these requests within two months, although some EU countries have put more stringent requirements in place (in Poland, for example, companies have a month to respond).

One month after the EU Pay Transparency Directive still went into effect, HR leaders overseeing compliance with the law were still figuring out how to comply with the right to information provision, according to a recent survey fielded by pay equity software platform Syndio.

The survey, which draws on responses from 101 people overseeing EUPTD readiness at the organizations, found a majority (89%) had defined their approach to informing workers about the right to information. The same share of respondents had also dedicated a channel for fielding these requests.

But 78% of respondents hadn’t yet issued an annual notice to workers informing them of this right, which is also required by the EUPTD. Some workers aren’t waiting to be informed, as 39% of organizations in countries that have already adopted their own legislation to comply with the EUPTD had received requests as of July. (EU nations were required to pass their own laws to enforce the EUPTD requirements, but many of them were late on it, HR Brew reported in June.)

“Employees are actually asking before the law tells them they can, and before their employer has told them they can,” Maria Colacurcio, Syndio CEO, said. “Law or not, the demand is increasing, and employers haven’t even issued the notices yet.”

The challenge of disclosure rules. The right-to-information provision poses a challenge for employers who aren’t used to scrutiny surrounding their pay practices, Colacurcio said.

“Employers are starting to get really nervous in terms of…they need to shift from backward-looking pay audits to guiding pay decisions in the moment and making sure that every decision is in line and consistent with their pay strategy, because now they’re exposed.”

Europe isn’t the only region where HR teams are preparing to share additional information about pay with current employees. In Maine, a law that went into effect on July 29 also allows workers to request the salary range for their current role, HR Brew previously reported.

Sources who spoke with HR Brew ahead of the EUPTD taking effect in June emphasized the importance of training managers to have conversations with employees who request information about their pay. When workers ask, “Why am I paid what I’m paid?” managers should “have the tools and the training to respond to those inquiries,” Brian Levine, a partner and pay equity consulting leader with Merit Analytics Group, said.