Discovering the salary of others, in a year you can get to know the paychecks of colleagues: this is how the European directive in Italy will really work

From summer 2026 they can Know the paychecks of colleagues Thanks to a European directive that requires greater transparency also to overcome the gender imbalance that tell the data. In Europe, women earn less than men, the average gap for now is 13%, 0.87 euros for women against 1 euro earned by a man, in a year it is one and a half month less salary.

The new directive does not allow you to directly see the paycheck of all colleagues, but every worker and worker, or their representatives, will be able to know the average salary of colleagues who have the same job or degree. The companies, under penalty of penalties, will have to provide, within two months of the request, the indications of the average wages divided by role and gender. If the information is incomplete, you can ask for more detailed indication.

They cannot be included in the contracts that require not to mention the wages by leading to falling the wage secret implemented in Italy so far. The same workers cannot be prevented from disseminating their salary. As already happens in other countries, the initial remuneration relating to the position to those who apply for a job must be indicatedbut you cannot ask the candidate for the perceived salary in the previous work. The goal is to break down the Gender Pay Gap, which costs 3% of the EU GDP, and aims more generally on equity and inclusion at work, but the directive does not force to pay people, men or women in the same way, which occupy the same position. Companies will continue to give different wages, but will have to clarify criteria and motivations.

With the help of Giorgia Giorgetti, counsel of the A&Oman law firm, we clarify some points of the legislation.

As companies will have to adapt to this new legislation

In Italy, the local legislation of transposition of the directive has not yet been issued and this will have to happen by 7 June 2026, in less than a year. However, it is essential that companies begin in time to prepare for this appointment, starting up to now to rethink their remuneration systems with a view to transparency and objectivity. Not an easy exercise, especially for companies active in a country where there is a still very significant gender salary gap. This rethinking will be imposed from the selection phase, indicating the initial remuneration or the reference band for the position already in the job advertisements and therefore even before the same job interview, during which, moreover, it will be forbidden to ask for information on the wages received in the previous works. This is precisely in order to avoid the reiteration of unfair situations that may derive from previous work experiences. Each employee will then have a wide right of information, which is substantiated in the right to know, in addition to their pay level, also the average pay levels of those who do their own work, or a work of equal value, divided by sex, as well as to know the criteria that regulate salaries and economic progress, which will have to be clear and neutral from the point of view of the genre.

Cultural change

It is clear that the adjustment to this type of prescriptions, whatever the declination that will be given by the Italian legislator, is not something that can be improvised. In fact, a real change of culture is imposed and, more concretely, a thorough mapping of the content of the roles carried out in the company, as well as the skills and the remuneration equity applied concretely, therefore an unprecedented rethinking of consolidated practices and models. In essence, an accelerated and practical course of anti -discrimination law. It is therefore similar that, as required by the directive, the local legislation provides for forms of technical assistance and specific training to facilitate companies, at least those under certain numerical thresholds, to the not simple compliance with the new obligations.

What information will actually be made public or accessible to everyone

The information to be provided is substantially related to the remuneration gap between men and women within their organization, also in relation to the variable components of the remuneration and other complementary components, as well as the percentage of workers for each sex. However, not all companies will be required to do so and not all with the same frequency. In fact, the company dimensions come into play here: at the State, the obligation will certainly be for companies with more than 100 employees (with different start dates and timing depending on the number of employees).

The decision to impose these obligations also to companies under 100 employees is left to the discretion of each state.

Further obligations of disclosure They are then foreseen in the event that an average salary gap of at least 5% between men and women in the same category were found and the company were unable to provide an objective justification or timely remedy for this gap.

It means that it will no longer be possible to have wage differences between workers

Absolutely not. The possibility for the employers to remunerate in a different way those who do the same work or a work of equal value is not excluded at all, but any remuneration differences are allowed only if based on objective and neutral criteria with respect to the genre, such as professional performance or skills. The aim is therefore not to standardize wages, but to ensure that any differences are transparent, verifiable and independent of the genre. It is easily understood that with this filter, which requires a serious reflection on the type of work actually lent beyond the genre called to lend it, the employers are forced to put many of the prejudices rooted in the system and often invisible to the door.

An employee can oppose the sharing of his salary with colleagues

The new legislation does not provide in any way that the salary of the individual employee is disclosed. What is introduced is the right of workers to receive clear and transparent information on the “medium” salary level, divided by gender, colleagues and colleagues who do the same work or a job of equal value. However, these are aggregated and non -personal data: individual confidentiality will continue to be protected. To the point that, in the event that the information should involve the dissemination of the remuneration of an identifiable worker (we think, for example, when the employee in question is the only one in a certain category), the directive leaves the Member States also the right to opt for a sharing of information only towards the workers’ representatives, the work inspectorate or the body for equality. In such cases, these bodies are expected to then provide advice to workers for a possible appeal for the protection of their rights but without disseminating the actual remuneration levels of the “individual” workers – it will be interesting to see what the Italian legislator will decide to do and, possibly, how this protection option will be concretized, which from an operational point of view seems rather complicated.