Women workers need a ban on the pay secrecy clauses which have allowed unequal pay to persist almost 50 years after the EU enshrined equal pay in law.

Member states are dragging their feet: nearly half of them have still not even published a draft national law, and about a quarter have drafts but aren’t on track to complete the process until next year. Research by the European Trade Union Confederation found:

• Completed transposition: Slovakia, Italy, Lithuania
• Delayed, partial transposition: Poland, Czechia, Malta, Belgium
• Delayed to 2027 / draft legislation exists: Netherlands, France, Denmark, Finland, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece
• No draft legislation published / no timeline: Ireland, Germany, Spain, Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovenia
• Opposed to transposition: Sweden

*Governments in these countries have adopted legislation that they claim transposes the Directive. Whether or not the adopted legislation fully complied with the provisions of the Directive is beyond the scope of this research.

The delays have been caused by intense lobbying by employer organisations against the law, which they have called a ‘regulatory burden’, in order to water down key women rights.

So far, the European Commission has consistently rejected employers calls, sending a clear signal to capitals to press ahead to deliver.

ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:

“The failure to meet Sunday’s deadline is a betrayal of working women, it represents a shameful failure of political leadership in the face of aggressive corporate lobbying. The Commission has stood firm and rejected the calls from employers to weaken the Directive and they need to hold Governments to their responsibilities to transpose the Directive. Pay secrecy hands all the power to the employer and leaves women and their trade unions without the basic information they need to stand up for themselves,"

ETUC Deputy General Secretary Isabelle Schömann:

“The ETUC is on the offensive for a swift and ambitious transposition. Women workers have waited too long already. Women’s exploitation at work must stop. Women have already waited much too long for Europe’s commitment to equal pay to be made a reality! Women workers need concrete commitment now. Why? Because every year without action would cost women an average of €4,256 in lost wages. Pay transparency will make a huge difference to millions of women whose work has been undervalued and underpaid for too long, in comparison to the small cost to companies.”