EU Pay Transparency Directive

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Year: 2025

Speaker

Inger Verhelst is a partner at Claeys & Engels in Antwerp, where she specializes in individual and collective employment law. She advises companies on workforce restructuring, collective dismissals, union negotiations, and M&A-related labour issues. Inger also represents clients before labour courts and has pleaded before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Her practice includes a strong focus on discrimination, workplace well-being, and internal investigations. She frequently advises on privacy and data protection matters, including compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In 2017, she earned a GDPR certification from the Solvay Management School in cooperation with the Belgian Data Protection Authority.

Inger is a guest lecturer in social law at the University of Antwerp and the Karel de Grote University College. She is a member of the Ius Laboris expert groups on Discrimination and Data Protection and co-author of leading employment law publications. Who’s Who Legal 2021 ranks her for her deep expertise in labour law.

Topic

In this EU-presentation delivered at the ERA Conference on 20 March 2025, Inger Verhelst offers a comprehensive overview of the EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970), which entered into force in June 2023 and must be transposed by member states by June 2026. The presentation begins by reaffirming the principle of equal pay for equal work, anchored in EU treaties and case law, and highlights persistent gender pay gaps across the Union (12% on average, with wide national variations).

Verhelst explains how the Directive aims to close the pay gap by introducing binding transparency obligations for employers, including: pre-contractual pay disclosure, rights to request pay information, and mandatory pay gap reporting for companies with over 100 employees. Employers will be required to justify pay differences with gender-neutral criteria and may face joint assessments if unexplained gaps exceed 5%.

The presentation provides practical insights on compliance, such as revising recruitment processes, reviewing pay structures, and preparing for reporting duties. Verhelst also discusses enforcement mechanisms,...