Overview
- France failed to transpose EU Directive 2023/970 by the June 7 deadline and, on Friday, Minister Jean-Pierre Farandou said a draft bill will be transmitted to the Conseil d’État by June 7 to start the formal process.
- The EU text requires employers to state a salary or salary range in job adverts, give workers access to pay information by sex for work of equal value, require companies to report gender pay gaps, and allow sanctions for unjustified gaps.
- Employers’ groups have urged delays or a moratorium citing high administrative burden and large compliance bills for mid-sized firms while unions including the CFDT and CGT demand a rapid, faithful transposition and threaten legal challenges if provisions are weakened.
- Key implementation choices remain open, such as whether to set a minimum threshold of employees per job category to trigger disclosure, how reporting will vary by company size, and what penalties will apply, creating immediate uncertainty for HR teams and businesses.
- Most EU states have also lagged on transposition, so France’s delay adds to a wider European slowdown and could produce legal disputes, extra costs for companies, and earlier opportunities for workers to press pay claims once national rules are fixed.