Germany has failed to implement new European Union rules on pay transparency, meaning Berlin will be considered in breach of bloc law as of today. The deadline set by the European Commission for EU member states to amend their national laws to comply with the new rules expires today.
Germany's Federal Ministry for Family Affairs recently announced that German law will not be amended until the coming months, and not before early 2027. The European Commission must now decide whether to open legal proceedings against Germany, though Brussels may step back from such action if Berlin does in fact amend German law in the coming months.
Women continue to earn less on average than men; figures from the European statistical office Eurostat for 2024 — the most recent data available — show that the average gross hourly wage for women in Germany is 15.6% lower than for men, while the gap stands at 11.1% across the European Union as a whole.
To address this, workers are supposed to be able to request information about average pay for comparable work, broken down by gender. Employers with 100 or more employees will also be required to submit regular reports on the gender pay gap.
Employers will additionally be required to inform job applicants of the starting salary level at an early stage, and will be prohibited from asking candidates about their previous salary.
The pay transparency directive was adopted in 2023 by EU member states and the European Parliament. Germany's government at the time — a coalition of the Social Democrats, the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party — abstained from the vote in the Council of the EU. Since then, 7 June 2026 (today) has been set as the implementation deadline.
Family Minister Karin Prien — from Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Party — said in a Politico podcast that Germany is "also holding talks with other European countries" with a view to introducing amendments to implementation deadlines and the content of the changes. The minister added: "But in the end, we will have no choice but to apply it with as little bureaucracy as possible."
She stressed that equal pay must remain a political goal. A ministry spokesperson had recently clarified that the directive would be implemented "limited to what is strictly necessary, with as little bureaucratic burden as possible and in an effective manner," attributing the delay to the economic situation. The first pay reports and rights of access are scheduled to begin in June 2028.
The European Commission attributes the causes of the pay gap to structural imbalances.