Overview
- Family Affairs Minister Karin Prien plans to start the legislative process in early 2026 with a draft bill targeted for the first quarter.
- Employers’ leader Steffen Kampeter labels the EU measure an attack on collective agreements and urges Berlin to seek more time to implement it.
- The directive requires employers to disclose entry pay or ranges in hiring, bans questions about prior pay, and lets workers request average pay data by gender for comparable roles.
- Reporting is phased by company size: firms with at least 250 or 150–249 employees must first report by 7 June 2027, those with 100–149 by 7 June 2031, and smaller firms face limited duties.
- Unions and legal voices dispute protections for collective agreements as courts’ deference to social partners is weighed against transparency rules, with gender pay gap estimates ranging from 16% unadjusted to about 6% adjusted.