Netherlands follows suit and requires employers to disclose colleagues’ salaries

©Annie Spratt via Unsplash - illustratiebeeld

A solution for your endless curiosity, a trigger for your unbridled competitiveness or fodder for your jealousy? Whichever way it turns out, the fact is that it was decided at the European level that employers must now tell employees how much their colleagues earn if asked the question. However, quite a few EU member states have not managed to get a legislative framework and the practical implementation in place in time. The clock is ticking, but even in the Netherlands there seems to be no escape from this landmark regulation aimed at reducing the gender pay gap.

As of today, June 7, 2026, employers are obliged to tell an employee who asks what his or her colleagues earn. This is contained in the European Wage Transparency Directive. Initially, the Netherlands also had to transpose the directive into national law by June 7, 2026. But in late May, the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment already informed the Lower House that this was not feasible and that implementation would be postponed to no later than January 1, 2027, Aedes reports.

Narrowing the wage gap

The European Pay Transparency Directive should reduce the gender pay gap in the EU by making remuneration policies more transparent. As from June 7, 2026, companies must be transparent about their remuneration policy.

Indeed, employees will now have the right to information on starting pay, individual pay levels and gender-disaggregated averages. Employers will also be prohibited from asking about candidates' pay history.

The European directive requires companies with more than 100 employees to disclose what women in certain positions earn relative to men in the same positions. Seniority can be an explanation, for example, or an evaluation with clearly measurable criteria. If the difference cannot be explained, companies must correct that wage gap. Employees themselves may also check whether their pay is comparable to that of the "average" man or woman doing equivalent work. Thus, they may request (anonymized) information about what their colleagues of the opposite sex earn.

Companies with 100+ employees must periodically report on the wage gap; an unjustified gap ≥ 5% requires a comprehensive analysis and remedial action. The European directive requires gender-neutral job classifications and pay structures based on objective criteria such as skills and responsibility.

Women still earn less

EU member states were given until June 7, 2026, to transpose the European Wage Transparency Directive into their own laws and collective bargaining agreements. But quite a few member states have thus failed to do so. The Dutch caretaker government has indicated that timely implementation is not feasible and has postponed the implementation date to January 1, 2027.

Netherlands and Belgium miss the boat

However, the European Commission has officially responded that all member states, including the Netherlands, must fully transpose the directive into national law by June 2026, refusing to postpone.

Still, the Netherlands insists on the postponement. The bill has been sent to the Council of State and should enter into force on January 1, 2027. Therefore, the reporting requirement for companies with 150+ employees does not apply until 2026, but for the first time for the year 2027.

©Annie Spratt via Unsplash - illustration image