Salary transparency becomes a legal obligation in Romania: The impact of EU Directive 2023/970 on employers

From salary ranges in job advertisements to reporting gender-based pay differences: The main obligations and sanctions laid down by EU Directive No. 970/2023

EU Directive No. 2023/970 on pay transparency introduces a new, more detailed and more intrusive legal framework for verifying compliance with the principle of equal pay for the same work or for work of equal value between women and men. The European regulation does not stop at a statement of principle, but establishes concrete obligations concerning pay transparency, informing candidates before hiring, the right of employees to request remuneration data, reporting pay differences, joint pay assessments and the application of effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions. Under the legislation currently in force, there are already rules on equal treatment, the prohibition of discrimination and the guarantee of equal remuneration. However, the Directive imposes procedural mechanisms and compliance obligations that go beyond the current domestic framework and that will require legislative and organizational adjustments by 7 June 2026. This article examines the obligations relating to pay transparency, reporting on gender differences, corrective actions, sanctions and the main points of comparison between Directive 2023/970 and the Romanian legislation currently in force.

In this context, The Romanian Law Firm Pavel Margarit and Associates provides specialized legal services in labor law, employment relationships, remuneration policies, internal compliance procedures and the protection of the rights of both employees and employers. Assistance provided by an job discrimination lawyers near me in Romania and labor lawyer wrongful termination in Romania is essential for a proper assessment of the obligations arising from the new European framework and the applicable domestic legislation. The implementation of the new obligations requires a serious analysis of internal governance and risk management associated with labor disputes in Romania, discrimination in the workplace, gender discrimination, as well as possible retaliatory measures taken against employees who exercise their rights. In practice, the intervention of lawyers for workers compensation in Romania may also be useful at the stage of reviewing internal procedures and mechanisms designed to prevent conflict situations. At the same time, an attorney focused on employee rights, including an attorney for employment discrimination in Romania, may provide legal assistance in cases where employees invoke breaches of their pay rights or adverse treatment resulting from the exercise of those rights.

Employment conflict lawyer in Romania. Pay transparency before hiring and the implementation deadline of EU Directive 2023/970 in Romania: What salary information must be communicated before recruitment

EU Directive 2023/970 on pay transparency establishes, in the field of recruitment, a shift in paradigm: remuneration is no longer treated exclusively as an internal element of contractual negotiation, but as an element that must be made known to the candidate before hiring, in a manner that allows a real and informed negotiation. The rule follows from Article 5, which requires the employer to provide information on the initial level of remuneration or the relevant pay range, established on the basis of objective and gender-neutral criteria, as well as, where applicable, the relevant clauses of the collective agreement applicable to the position.

At the same time, the employer is prohibited from requesting the candidate’s salary history, and job advertisements and job titles must be drafted in a gender-neutral manner, without practices that perpetuate the salary gap between men and women or indirect mechanisms of discrimination. This solution is intended to limit the transfer into the new employment relationship of pre-existing pay imbalances and to reduce the risk that gender discrimination will be reproduced from one hiring process to another.

From a practical standpoint, the obligation of pay transparency will require employers to review recruitment notices, pay scales, offer procedures and internal recruitment policies, including from the perspective of proving the criteria used to determine entry salary. The transposition deadline is 7 June 2026, expressly provided for in Article 34 of the Directive, which means that employers must treat this issue as an immediate compliance project rather than as a remote theoretical risk.

In parallel, the Romanian legislation currently in force already contains relevant rules, but it does not yet fully regulate the European mechanism of pay transparency before hiring. The Labor Code enshrines the principle of equal treatment and prohibits discrimination in employment relationships under Article 5, while Article 6 paragraph (3) provides that, for equal work or work of equal value, any differentiation based on sex with regard to all elements and conditions of remuneration is prohibited. Likewise, Article 159 paragraph (3) of the Labor Code prohibits any form of discrimination in the workplace in the establishment and granting of salary, while Law No. 202/2002 on equal opportunities and equal treatment between women and men guarantees, under Article 7 paragraph (1) letter c), equal income for work of equal value.

However, the current domestic regime preserves, through Article 163 paragraph (1) of the Labor Code, the rule of salary confidentiality, which places it in tension with the Directive, which requires Member States to prohibit clauses that prevent disclosure of remuneration for the purpose of protecting the right to equal pay. In other words, Romanian law already provides the general legal basis for combating discrimination in the workplace and gender discrimination, yet the express and detailed obligations imposed by the EU directive are still missing, including communicating the salary range before the interview, the prohibition on requesting salary history, and the full procedural mechanism associated with those obligations.

A labor law attorney in Romania may provide specialized legal assistance, including at the stage of recruitment procedures and pre-contractual documents, so that pay transparency obligations are correctly integrated into the employer’s practice. At the same time, an employment lawyer in Romania or one of the labor law lawyers near me may assess whether the proposed remuneration policy complies with the legal requirements on equal treatment and prevents risks of discrimination in the workplace from the recruitment stage. In cases involving a potential pay gap or exposure to employment discrimination, early review by job discrimination lawyers near me may also help employers align hiring practices with discrimination in the workplace laws in Romania.

Employee rights lawyer in Romania. Reporting pay differences and employees’ right to salary information

EU Directive 2023/970 on pay transparency does not stop at the recruitment stage, but establishes a substantive right for workers to request and receive in writing information regarding their own pay level and the average pay levels, broken down by sex, for categories of workers performing the same work or work of equal value. This right follows from Article 7 of the Directive and is accompanied by the employer’s obligation to inform employees annually about the existence of this right and the way in which it may be exercised.

In addition, Article 9 of the Directive introduces reporting obligations for employers with at least 100 workers, covering the difference in remuneration between women and men, the difference in variable or complementary components, the median pay difference, distribution across pay quartiles and differences by categories of workers. This mechanism transforms pay transparency from a declaratory principle into an internal and external control instrument over the way salaries, bonuses and pay progression are structured. From a legal standpoint, reporting may reveal not only simple gender differences, but also situations susceptible to discrimination, gender discrimination, or even systemic discrimination, where the differences cannot be justified by objective, neutral and verifiable criteria. Reporting must be understood together with the obligation to make available to workers the criteria used to determine remuneration, pay levels and pay progression, as provided for by Article 6 of the Directive. In practice, this obligation will require employers to be able to explain and document their pay system through coherent, foreseeable criteria compatible with the principle of equal pay.

From the perspective of Romanian domestic law, there is already a general framework supporting such obligations through the Labor Code and Law No. 202/2002, but without yet establishing this level of procedural detail. At the same time, Government Ordinance No. 137/2000 on the prevention and sanctioning of all forms of discrimination provides the legal basis for reporting acts of discrimination in the workplace and for seeking remedies before the National Council for Combating Discrimination or before the courts, and this framework may become much more active once comparative salary data becomes more accessible. Concretely, issues that are currently often difficult to prove in proceedings involving labor disputes in Romania may be supported more easily through comparative pay information, which may increase the number of disputes concerning discrimination in the workplace, gender discrimination and the related effects thereof, including adverse treatment, professional marginalization or even subtle forms of harassment generated by the exercise of the right to information. Such cases may also overlap with broader claims of work-related discrimination, unfair treatment at work, and employment discrimination.

Where uncertainties arise regarding access to pay information or suspicions concerning gender-based differences, an employee-rights-focused lawyer and a workplace safety practitioner, including lawyers for workers compensation in Romania, may provide legal assistance to employees who wish to exercise their rights correctly and effectively, including by drafting requests to the employer, analysing the replies received and assessing potential instances of discrimination in the workplace. Such assistance is particularly useful where the employee seeks clarification without escalating the conflict immediately, but also where it becomes necessary to prepare a legal position for the administrative or judicial phase. Likewise, an employment lawyer in Romania, and a labor discrimination lawyer in Romania, may assist employers in drafting responses to employee requests, verifying the compliance of internal procedures and preventing future work disputes in Romania generated by allegations of discrimination or gender discrimination, through the adoption of clear, documented measures compatible with the legislation in force. In more sensitive matters involving the salary gap between men and women or gender equality at work in Romania, early legal review may substantially reduce exposure.

Labor Code lawyer in Romania. Corrective actions, joint pay assessment and the 5% threshold: When correction obligations arise for employers

One of the most important novelties introduced by Directive 2023/970 on pay transparency is the transition from the mere identification of differences to the obligation placed on the employer to intervene actively in order to remedy them. Article 9 paragraph (10) provides that, where differences in remuneration between women and men cannot be justified on the basis of objective, gender-neutral criteria, the employer must remedy the situation within a reasonable period, in close cooperation with workers’ representatives, the labour inspectorate and, where appropriate, the equality body.

Article 10 of the Directive goes further and imposes a joint pay assessment where three cumulative conditions are met: reporting shows a difference of at least 5% in a category of workers, the difference is not objectively justified and the employer has not remedied it within six months of reporting. This joint pay assessment is not a mere formality, but a process that must identify the causes of the difference, analyse the proportion of women and men in the relevant categories, the average pay levels, the possible reasons for the differences and the measures required to eliminate inequalities. From this perspective, this EU directive imposes a regime of mandatory internal audit capable of transforming a statistical issue into an obligation to reorganize the job classification and evaluation system. The analysis is directly linked to the pay gap, the salary gap between men and women, and the broader obligation to ensure gender equality at work in Romania.

For employers, the 5% threshold must not be regarded as an automatic threshold of fault, but rather as a threshold triggering additional obligations of justification and, in the absence of an objective justification, correction. In practice, the core legal issue will be the employer’s ability to demonstrate that the differences are based on real, verifiable and neutral criteria such as skills, responsibility, performance or working conditions, without those criteria concealing discrimination or an indirect form of gender discrimination in Romania. In the absence of a coherent internal methodology, there is a risk that such differences will be considered unjustified and will generate not only remedial obligations but also exposure to labor disputes in Romania and work disputes in Romania.

Under Romanian law, the concept of work of equal value is already defined in Law No. 202/2002, while the Labor Code prohibits discriminatory differentiations in the field of pay. Nevertheless, the mechanism of joint pay assessment, involving workers’ representatives and emphasizing remediation within a set period, represents a significant development beyond the current domestic framework. This evolution will also have direct effects in other areas, because the employee who complains of discrimination in the workplace or requests clarification regarding remuneration must be protected against retaliation, including against measures that may appear neutral but may degenerate into abusive disciplinary dismissal or dismissal without cause. In practice, this may raise issues of work-related discrimination, unfair treatment at work, and even the need to appeal a decision in Romania where the employee alleges retaliatory conduct connected to remuneration claims.

At the stage where the employer must analyse pay differences and adopt internal remedial measures, a labor law attorney in Romania or one of the labor law lawyers near me may provide legal assistance in reviewing remuneration criteria, job evaluation systems and the relevant internal documentation. If disputes arise in connection with the measures adopted or their effects on employment relationships, a conflict specialist, including a workplace retaliation lawyer in Romania, may help manage risks and avoid allegations of discrimination in the workplace or related forms of harassment. In complex internal reorganizations, support from a labor discrimination lawyer in Romania or an attorney for employment discrimination in Romania may also be appropriate where the assessment touches on the pay gap or on persistent concerns regarding gender equality at work in Romania.

Labor disputes lawyer in Romania. Sanctions, damages and enforcement mechanisms in the area of equal pay

The practical effectiveness of the Directive on pay transparency results from Chapter III, which strengthens remedies and enforcement mechanisms. Article 16 enshrines the right to damages and full compensation for any worker who has suffered harm as a result of the breach of a right or obligation connected with the principle of equal pay. Compensation must be real and effective and must include full recovery of outstanding payments and bonuses or benefits in kind, compensation for lost opportunities, moral damages and default interest.

Under Article 17 of the Directive, courts or competent authorities may order the cessation of the infringement and the adoption of the measures necessary to secure compliance with rights, while Article 18 provides for a shift in the burden of proof and, in a particularly relevant formulation, states that failure to comply with pay transparency obligations may result in the burden of proving the absence of discrimination being transferred to the employer. The act also requires Member States to provide effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, including fines, while taking into account aggravating factors, repeated infringements and the seriousness of the conduct, pursuant to Article 23. Consequently, non-compliance is no longer merely an issue of internal reputation, but a full legal risk involving financial, evidentiary and litigation exposure.

In relation to Romanian law, this regulation is compatible with the mechanisms already in place, but it will lead to a more intensive and more rigorous application of them. Through Article 6 paragraphs (4) and (5), the Labor Code protects employees who file complaints or initiate proceedings for the protection of their rights and recognizes their right to request damages and restoration of the previous situation. Likewise, Government Ordinance No. 137/2000 allows complaints before the CNCD and court actions for reparation of damage and removal of the consequences of discriminatory acts.

However, after the Directive is transposed, the number of disputes may increase, since employees will have stronger evidentiary tools at their disposal, while employers will also be exposed to conflicts in which pay claims are combined with challenges to measures considered retaliatory. In practice, a conflict arising from the lack of pay transparency may evolve into broader labor disputes in Romania, in which claims of discrimination in the workplace, dismissal without cause, disciplinary dismissal, as well as the nullity or lack of grounds of a dismissal decision are raised. In such cases, the relationship between pay, any adverse treatment and the personnel measures adopted by the employer becomes central. These matters may also support claims of wrongful termination in Romania, proceedings to appeal a decision in Romania, claims handled by a labor lawyer wrongful termination in Romania, or more severe actions in which an employee seeks to sue for wrongful termination in Romania.

“EU Directive 2023/970 imposes stricter rules on pay transparency and equal remuneration, and failure to comply with them may lead to labor disputes in Romania, sanctions and claims based on discrimination in the workplace and gender discrimination in Romania.” stated Dr. Radu Pavel, Managing Partner of The Romanian Law Firm Pavel Margarit and Associates

In conclusion, the new European legal regime on pay transparency transforms equal remuneration from a general principle of labor law into a set of concrete obligations of information, reporting, justification and remediation. For Romania, the domestic legal framework already provides the basis for equal treatment and for combating discrimination, discrimination in the workplace and gender discrimination, but the transposition of Directive 2023/970 on pay transparency will impose additional mechanisms, especially regarding the information to be provided to candidates, access to salary data, reporting by employers with at least 100 workers and the joint pay assessment at the 5% threshold. At the same time, breaches of these obligations may fuel complex work disputes in Romania, including related cases concerning workplace harassment, dismissal without cause, disciplinary dismissal and the challenge of dismissal decisions.

Accordingly, Pavel, Margarit and Associates Romanian Law Firm recommends that where non-compliance leads to sanctions, claims for damages or judicial proceedings, a litigation specialist may ensure legal representation in cases concerning equal pay, discrimination, dismissal without cause or the challenge of a dismissal decision. In cross-border or sensitive dismissal matters, support from a labor law attorney in Romania, an attorney for employment discrimination in Romania, a labor discrimination lawyer in Romania, an unlawful termination lawyer in Romania, or lawyers experienced in gender discrimination in Romania may be decisive, especially where the employee alleges work-related discrimination, unfair treatment at work, employment discrimination, or seeks to sue for wrongful termination in Romania after deciding to appeal a decision in Romania.

Pavel, Margarit and Associates Law Firm is one of the top law firms in Romania, providing high-quality legal services. The firm’s clients include multinational and domestic companies of great magnitude. In 2026, the law firm’s success stories brought it international recognition from the most prestigious international guides and publications in the field. As a result, Pavel, Margarit and Associates Law Firm ranked 3rd in Romania in the Legal 500’s ranking of business law firms with the most relevant expertise. The law firm is internationally recognized by the IFLR 1000 Financial and Corporate 2026 guide. Additionally, Pavel, Margarit and Associates Law Firm is the only law firm in Romania recommended by the international director of Global Law Experts in London in the Dispute Resolution practice area. All relevant information about Pavel, Margarit and Associates Law Firm can be found on the website www.avocatpavel.com.