Pay transparency: what changes in your job ads
Last updated: August 2026
You are publishing a job ad this week. Should you already mention a salary? And if the candidate asks what their future colleague earns, what do you answer?
Europe set a deadline: 7 June 2026. By that date, every member state was supposed to have written the pay transparency directive into national law. Belgium did not. Many employers concluded they still had time.
That is a misreading. The delay is not a reprieve, it is a window to get ready. Because when the law arrives, it will not simply ask large companies for an annual report. It will change how you write a job ad, how you run an interview and how you justify a salary, from your very first employee.
In this article: what the directive actually requires, and where Belgium stands today. Then what will apply depending on your company size, and the five steps you can take now so the law does not catch you unprepared.
What exactly is pay transparency?
Pay transparency is the obligation to make your pay rules visible. It stems from European directive 2023/970, which aims to strengthen equal pay between women and men for the same work or work of equal value. The principle: a pay gap is only acceptable if it rests on objective, demonstrable criteria.
The directive rests on three pillars.
1. Transparency before hiring. The candidate must know the starting salary or the pay range before discussing pay with you.
2. The right to information during employment. Your workers can ask how their pay is determined and how they compare with the average of colleagues doing work of equal value.
3. Gap reporting. The largest companies must measure and publish the pay gap between women and men, and correct what cannot be justified.
What surprises employers most: the directive does not only refer to "the same job". It refers to work of equal value. Two different job titles, in two different departments, can constitute work of equal value if they require comparable skills, responsibilities and effort. That shift is what makes the exercise demanding.
Where does Belgium stand in August 2026?
As things stand, Belgium has not transposed the directive. The 7 June 2026 deadline was missed and a six-month extension was requested to complete the legislative work. No Belgian pay transparency law has therefore been published at the time of writing.
For the private sector, no draft law has been tabled yet: employer and union organisations are still negotiating the practical arrangements, and the Minister of Employment has confirmed that transposition will indeed happen. If you read elsewhere that Belgium has already legislated, do not be misled: the French Community adapted its own rules back in 2024 and the Flemish Government approved a preliminary draft decree, but those texts cover the public sector, not your company.
What does that mean in practice?
What is not yet mandatory. As long as the Belgian law is not published, you are not legally required to display a pay range in your job ads. A European directive does not apply directly between a private employer and their worker: it must pass through national law.
What is already mandatory. Equal pay between women and men is not a 2026 novelty. It is already written into Belgian law and into collective labour agreement no. 25. The directive does not create the principle, it creates the tools to verify it. An employer applying unjustified gaps today is already in breach, even without a transposition law.
What is coming. The content of the directive is known and will not change. The Belgian law will set the practical rules, not the principles. Everything you put in place now will therefore remain useful, whatever the publication date.
One point of method, drawn from what we see passing through payroll files every month: the long part of this project is not legal, it is descriptive. Mapping your jobs and writing down your pay criteria takes weeks, not days. That is precisely the work that can start now, without a single line of the Belgian text.
What changes in your job ads
This is where the directive will reach you fastest, and it is the most underestimated part. Two obligations bear directly on recruitment, and they will apply whatever the size of your company.
You will have to give a salary before the interview
The candidate must receive information on the initial pay or its range in the published vacancy notice, before the job interview, or by other means. That is the wording of article 5 of the directive: mentioning it in the ad is therefore not the only possible channel, but the information must come before any exchange in which pay could be raised.
That information must rest on objective, gender-neutral criteria. So you will not be able to advertise a range of €2,200 to €4,500 to cover every eventuality: it will have to match the reality of the job on offer.
You will no longer be able to ask what a candidate earns
This is the most concrete prohibition, and the one that disrupts habits most. Asking a candidate what they earn today, or what they earned with their previous employer, will be prohibited.
The logic is simple: if you set an offer based on previous pay, you reproduce past inequalities. Someone underpaid in their previous job would stay underpaid indefinitely.
In practice, that means reviewing:
- Your job ad templates
- Your online application forms, including the "expected salary" field when it is presented as mandatory
- Your interview guides
- The briefing of everyone who meets candidates, including line managers outside HR
Watch one technical point: the prohibited question is the one about current or previous pay. Discussing a candidate's salary expectations remains possible. The line is thin, and that is exactly where mistakes will happen.
Which obligations apply to your company size?
Here is the question that comes up first: "am I concerned if I only have a handful of workers?". The answer is in this table.
| Obligation | From 1 worker | 100 to 149 | 150 to 249 | 250 and more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay range given to the candidate | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ban on asking about previous pay | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Worker's right to information on criteria | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Objective, gender-neutral pay criteria | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Report on the pay gap | No | Every 3 years, from 7 June 2031 | Every 3 years, from 7 June 2027 | Every year, from 7 June 2027 |
The lesson: only reporting has a size threshold, and it is phased in. Everything else applies to the three-person SME as much as to the thousand-employee group.
This is the most widespread misunderstanding in current discussions. Many SME owners remembered "250 workers" and assumed the topic did not concern them. The recruitment part concerns everyone.
Those deadlines are set out in article 9 of the directive.
The 5% gap and the reversed burden of proof
Two mechanisms change the nature of the legal risk. They deserve your attention even if you are not subject to reporting.
The 5% threshold
Article 10 of the directive provides for a joint pay assessment, carried out with worker representatives. Three conditions trigger it: a gap of at least 5% between women and men in a category of workers, no justification by objective and neutral criteria, and no correction within six months of the report. So this is not a simple flag. The employer must explain, then correct.
The burden of proof
This is the heaviest change. Where the employer has failed to meet their transparency obligations, the burden of proof shifts to them: it is no longer up to the worker to show they are being discriminated against, it is up to you to show that you are not. The directive sets aside the case of a clearly unintentional and minor breach. In practice: if you cannot explain why two people doing work of equal value are paid differently, the gap will be presumed discriminatory.
That has a very practical consequence: documentation is your defence. A pay gap justified by seniority, a certification, genuine versatility or an additional responsibility poses no problem at all, provided it is written down somewhere before the dispute, and not reconstructed afterwards.
The announced penalties
The directive requires member states to provide effective, dissuasive penalties. It provides for compensation that fully covers the loss suffered, including back pay and missed benefits, with no predetermined ceiling. It also requires economic operators taking part in public procurement to have pay mechanisms that do not produce unjustified gaps. The exact level of fines and the practical rules will be set by the Belgian transposition law. We will update this article as soon as it is published.
How to prepare now, in 5 steps
None of these steps requires waiting for the Belgian text. All of them have value in their own right.
Step 1: map your jobs
List every job in your company and group those that constitute work of equal value. The criterion is not the job title, but the combination of required skills, responsibilities, effort and working conditions.
A concrete example: in a cleaning company, a scheduling manager and a field team leader may fall under equal value, even though their trades have nothing in common. That is exactly the kind of comparison an inspector or a lawyer will make.
Step 2: write down your pay criteria
Put in writing what makes a salary vary in your company: seniority, certification, autonomy, team management, shift work, versatility. Three or four clear criteria beat fifteen vague ones.
That list serves twice over: it justifies your current gaps and it answers your workers' right to information.
Step 3: measure your gap now
Calculate the average pay gap between women and men in each group of equal value. The exercise is often uncomfortable, and that is precisely why you should do it calmly, without a complaint on the table.
Step 4: correct or document
For each gap identified, one question: can I explain it with an objective criterion from my list? If yes, document it. If no, plan the correction, with a realistic timeline. A written, committed catch-up plan carries far more weight than an improvised adjustment.
Step 5: rework your ads and brief your recruiters
Add a realistic range to your offers. Remove every question about previous pay from your forms and interview guides. And above all, warn everyone who runs interviews, including team leaders who meet a candidate informally. A question asked in good faith by a manager binds the company.
What about your temporary and agency workers?
This part is almost always forgotten, even though it concentrates the risk. Three points to know.
The equal treatment principle already exists. In agency work, the agency worker is entitled to the same pay conditions as if they had been hired directly by the user for the same job. It is not the directive that creates this rule: it already applies. Pay transparency will simply make gaps far more visible.
Your ads for short assignments are still ads. An offer for three weeks of logistics support will fall under the same information obligations as an offer for a permanent contract.
Your hourly rate must stay traceable. If you set a temporary worker's rate by feel, you will not be able to justify it. Start from your joint committee's pay scale and keep a record of your reasoning. Our article on how to determine the right hourly rate for temporary workers sets out the method.
If you fall under JC 200, your pay scales and conditions are detailed in our JC 200 guide for employers. And if you want to understand how a gross salary becomes a real cost before advertising a range, read how salary calculation works in Belgium.
What employers should remember
Pay transparency is not yet in force in Belgium, but everything it contains is known and on its way. Three points frame your preparation.
The recruitment part has no threshold. Pay range given to the candidate and ban on asking about previous pay: this applies from your first worker. Only gap reporting starts at 100 workers, phased in from 2027 to 2031.
Documentation is your protection. With the reversed burden of proof, a gap you cannot explain in writing will be presumed discriminatory. Writing down your pay criteria is the most profitable investment in this file.
Belgium's delay is an opportunity, not an exemption. You have a few months to do calmly what others will do under pressure. A company that already advertises its ranges also gains in attractiveness, in a market where candidates compare before they even apply.
How Recruit helps you
Hiring temporary staff without administrative worries? That is why we built Recruit.
With Recruit:
- Contracts in under 60 seconds - Create trial and agency contracts without the hassle
- Automatic salary calculation - Correct pay under current legislation and your joint committee
- Dimona and social documents - We handle every declaration, you focus on your business
- A traceable pay history - Every rate applied stays documented and retrievable
- Personal support 24/7 - Always a dedicated contact who knows your company
Try Recruit or contact our HR experts for tailored advice.
Frequently asked questions
Must I already put a salary in my job ads?
Not yet. The European directive was to be transposed by 7 June 2026, but the Belgian law has not been published to date. The obligation will take effect with the publication of the Belgian text. Nothing stops you from doing it now, and it puts you ahead.
Can I ask a candidate what they currently earn?
As long as the Belgian law is not published, the question is not formally prohibited. We nevertheless advise removing it now from your forms and interviews: it will be banned, and it already exposes you if a discrimination complaint is filed.
Is an SME with fewer than 100 workers concerned?
Yes, for the most part. Only the obligation to report the pay gap has a size threshold: it starts at 100 workers, and only from 7 June 2031 for the 100 to 149 bracket. Information to the candidate, the ban on asking about previous pay and the workers' right to information all apply from the first employee.
What happens if I find a gap above 5%?
You must first check whether the gap is explained by objective, neutral criteria such as seniority or an additional responsibility. If yes, document it. If not, and if the gap is not corrected within six months, the directive provides for a joint pay assessment with worker representatives.
Does this apply to agency workers?
Yes. Equal treatment on pay between an agency worker and a worker hired directly for the same job is already a rule in Belgium. Pay transparency will make those gaps easier to establish.
The information in this article is purely indicative and does not replace professional legal or accounting advice. Employment legislation changes regularly. Always consult the applicable legislation or contact an HR expert for advice tailored to your situation.