The Pay Transparency Directive is crucial to empower workers, and especially women, to enforce their right to equal pay through a set of binding measures on pay transparency, to strengthen the transparency of pay systems, to improve public understanding of the relevant legal concepts, and to enhance enforcement of the rights and obligations relating to equal pay. It is also crucial to the financial and economic empowerment of women – a key objective under the National Strategy for Women and Girls 2025-2030.  The 2024 gender pay gap in Ireland is estimated at 8.3% – this means that, on average, women are paid 8.3% less per hour than men. There are many likely reasons for this, including that women’s earning power can be impacted by periods of unpaid leave or part time work for caring responsibilities. Women are also under-represented in higher-paid decision-making roles, and there is evidence that, as prospective employees, women may be less likely than men to negotiate higher starting salaries with prospective employers.

The Government is fully committed to the complete and meaningful implementation of the Pay Transparency  Directive.

The Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 transposed a large portion of the Pay Transparency  Directive, particularly in relation to Article 9 on Gender Pay Gap Reporting. The implementation of the Gender Pay Gap Information Act and associated regulations require employers to report their gender pay gap each year, and the measures that are being taken to eliminate or reduce the gap.

Work is ongoing at pace to develop the necessary legislation to transpose the remaining provisions of the Pay Transparency Directive as soon as possible, including the obligation for employers to carry out Gender-Neutral Job Evaluation and to categorise employees and calculate the gender pay gap in such categories.

Officials were working towards the June 7 deadline for implementation. However, a number of factors impacted on this work. A series of European workshops on the transposition of the Directive were not completed until late September 2025, and the employer guidance and toolkit developed by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and the European Commission was not published until the end of March this year. A dedicated Irish Employer Gender-Neutral Job Evaluation toolkit, based on the recently published EIGE toolkit, is being commissioned by the Department of Children, Disability and Equality. Employers will be invited to attend training workshops based on this adapted toolkit.

The implementation of the EU Pay Transparency directive is a challenge for many EU member states, with the majority indicating they were not in a position to meet the June 7 deadline, including Ireland. The Department continues to engage constructively with the European Commission to advise of the ongoing work to transpose the directive as soon as possible.

The Department will work with employers, employees and their representatives to support and enable implementation of the Directive, which will be on a phased basis once the passage of the legislation is complete. It is imperative that supports and information are in place to assist employers to engage and comply with these new requirements, particularly for small and medium-sized organisations.

Employers will not be penalised for not having all elements of Directive completed in June 2026 and the Department has been working with stakeholders to communicate this message.

At present, employers will remain obligated to calculate and publish information on their gender pay gap by the end of November and, following a small amendment to the Employment Equality Act 1998, employers will be obligated to report that information to the Minister via the dedicated Gender Pay Gap Portal for the 2026 Reporting Cycle.