Achieving Equal Pay under the new EU Pay Transparency Directive 

The directive — which aims to strengthen equal pay for equal work (or work of equal value) through pay transparency, gender pay reporting, and other enforcement measures — has immediate implications for organizations operating in Europe that ripple across the globe.

A key requirement of the directive is that companies with more than 100 employees must start to identify and explain pay gaps above 5%. While the directive won’t go into effect until 2026, with reporting beginning in 2027, leading organizations are already preparing for these requirements — not only to get a head start on complying with the directive, but also because it’s good for business.

Pay equity can drive employee engagement; support broader ESG and DEI strategies; as well as support other EU directives such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive.

The gender pay gap, which looks at the average pay difference between men and women, in the EU is 12.7%​, according to Eurostat 2021​ data.

Looking at Mercer data¹ we found that the gender pay gap for organisations participating in our 2022 Total Remuneration Survey was 8.7% — likely lower, due to the fact that they have embedded stronger job architecture and market benchmarking practices.

After calculating for objective factors — such as general experience (proxy by age), tenure within organization, whether the employee is recently hire​d, and the job family and level in the organization — the actual gap became just 2.8%​.

We acknowledge, the list above of potential objective factors is not complete – simply a starting point to motivate companies to investigate further.

Performance is an obvious one — although it requires organizations to have a clearly documented, consistent and aligned performance management process in place. Supervision factors may be another. Specific location factors, such as the city of employment, may also effect pay equity. What about job changes? Recent promotions or demotions may also have an impact on pay.

Using a regression-based pay equity approach, companies can assess, for each individual in the organization, what constitutes equal pay for equal work under the same conditions. This provides a robust internal benchmark — simultaneously assessing the impact of pay for position, performance and personal characteristics like education, skills, effort and responsibility. 

Where unexplained or unjustified pay gaps are identified, companies can work to close these gaps by implementing targeted pay interventions and addressing structural change. 

“A pay equity regression analysis allows organizations to be certified with the Universal Fair Pay Check." As Henrike von Platen, the founder of this certification states. “We want to guarantee to stakeholders, investors and employees that the companies that we certify actually do provide fair pay.” 

Around the world — not solely within the EU — organizations are moving toward pay equity. They are taking heed of growing pressure from governments, activist investors and employees, and they are realizing the benefits in terms of attracting and retaining the top talent they need to achieve their business objectives. All in all, offering equal pay for equal work is a hot topic because it’s the right thing to do, and long overdue. Now more than ever having a strong policy and procedure around pay equity is fundamental to meeting these requirements. 

^{[1] Mercer’s 2023 Total Remuneration Survey included 1,708 organisations with more than 250 employees across 34 European countries.}