What does the EU Pay Transparency Directive mean for Ireland?

If you are not sure what this is, the detail and the timings, then please see the article we published on The Reward Heads page on Monday 10th February entitled “Where the heck are we with the EU Pay Transparency Directive?!?”

We know that many of our clients and forum members run operations for Ireland out of the UK. There are many similarities between the countries but also many differences and, now that the UK is no longer part of the EU, we are likely to see more.

Reward Heads have run a forum for Retail and Hospitality explicitly to cover Ireland to address the differences, the difficulties of getting data, and changes like auto enrolment, Living Wage and, of course, the EUPTD.

So how far has Ireland got? Hint – further than many other Member States but not there yet…

Progress on the EUPTD

On 15th January 2025, the Irish government published a General Scheme of the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2024 which includes two provisions aimed at enhancing pay transparency prior to employment and transposing Article 5 of the EU Pay Transparency Directive. Apologies, that sentence was as hard to write as it is to say – lots of legal terms. But it is progress and is hot off the press.

So let’s take a look at the measures it covers:

Measure 1: Advertising roles with salaries or salary ranges

The first measure proposed in the Bill would require employers to provide information about salary levels or ranges in job advertisements. This goes slightly further than the Directive, which does not state that this information must be published on the job advert, but it is something that an applicant is entitled to ask for at any stage during recruitment. This feels like a great build from the Irish government as it is what the end user, the job seeker, would want to know and when.

It’s currently unclear exactly how detailed the information provided will need to be, but it’s expected that there will be some measure to stop employers giving unhelpful information such very broad ranges. This was experienced in some US states in the early days of legislation there? -telling someone the range is $40k-$80k without an indication of where they would be placed, is worse than useless in our view.

Measure 2: Pay history

The second measure proposed in the Bill would prohibit employers from asking about candidates’ pay history or current rate of pay.

This is aimed at preventing employers from entrenching pay discrimination which may have started elsewhere (e.g. women who experienced pay discrimination in their previous role(s)). So they may not be causing the problem but exacerbate it. Currently, employers may ask about an applicant’s current salary and make an offer based on that.

What’s next? Watch this space

Note that the current government is pretty new – the General Election in Ireland was only 29th November 2024.

As the newly formed Irish government has yet to publish its updated legislation programme (which is expected in the coming weeks), it remains uncertain whether this draft Bill will progress in its current form to become a formal Bill and eventually law. There are also other important individual employee rights to pay information set out in the Directive which are not addressed in the draft Bill. For example, measures in relation to transparency of pay setting and pay progression policy, a ban on pay secrecy clauses, the right to information for “categories of workers performing the same work as them or work of equal value to theirs”.

Watch this space.

Current legislation

Unlike some EU Member States, Ireland is not starting from scratch in this arena.

Ireland already has Gender Pay Gap reporting legislation - but which will need to be adapted to meet the requirements of the Directive.

Here is an overview of Ireland’s GPG legislation as it currently exists. PS Reward Heads have run GPG for Ireland so please get in touch if you would like us to do this for you.

Deadlines

Snapshot date: a day in June that the employer chooses

Deadline: the corresponding day in November that year, i.e. if you choose June 1st as your snapshot date your deadline is November 1st.

June 1 2024: employers with 150 or more employees are required to publish

June 1 2025: employers with 50 or more employees are required to publish

Metrics required for reporting

·??????? The percentage difference in mean and median hourly remuneration of male and female relevant employees, part-time employees, and those on temporary contracts

·??????? The percentage difference between the mean and median bonus remunerations of relevant male and female employees

·??????? The percentage difference between relevant male and female employees who were paid bonus

·??????? The percentage difference between relevant male and female employees who received benefits in kind

·??????? The percentages of all relevant employees within four quartile bands for hourly pay

Employers are also required to publish a narrative explaining their gender pay gap and an action plan.

Publishing requirements

Employers must publish the Ireland pay gap report either on their website or in another way that is accessible to all its employees and to the public. It must be available for a period of at least three years beginning with the date of publication.

?So it is a great start but does not cover everything in the EUPTD even on Gender Pay Gap reporting.

Conclusion

Employers operating in Ireland already have some experience of some of the legislation which the EU Pay Transparency Directive will bring, but without the full detail or a clear timetable of when that will be made available. Right now, only those with 250 or more employees need to report their Gender Pay Gap but this will fall progressively to 50, capturing many more and many for whom Ireland is not Head office,

The clock is ticking however – legislation will need to be live within 14 months and employers need to be ready.

Please do reach out to the team at Reward Heads if we can help you on the journey – email [email protected]

Our next Retail and Hospitality Forum for Ireland is on 12th March. If you are Reward or HR in a business in these sectors, please email [email protected] for an invite

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