A woman with a piggy bank and clocks

It’s Equal Pay Time!

ByAnita Lettink

Are you ready for Pay Transparency?

Do you know if you have a pay gap?

Don’t worry if your answer is “No”! You’re not too late. But if you have a gender pay gap, closing it is costly and takes time. If you don’t know how large the gap is, I recommend you don’t wait much longer.

And that becomes even more important as governments around the world are rolling out pay transparency legislation. The most comprehensive one is obviously the EU Pay Transparency Directive and that’s the focus of this newsletter. But equal pay is turning into a global work requirement: several American states have rolled out legislation. As have countries like New Zealand, Japan, and recently Brazil.

That’s why I am writing this newsletter. As the official reporting dates are getting closer, I want to help you succeed! Here is how:

  • I recently published a book called “Equal Pay for Equal Work“, a guide to help you implement a successful pay transparency program.
  • This newsletter serves as a companion, to explains best practices about implementing pay transparency. I’ll answer reader questions and share lessons learned. You’ll get updates on the latest trends, developments and global legislation twice a month.
  • I am running in-company workshops and also offer training webinars: I’ll take you through the most important aspects of the EU Directive and share a step-by step program to make this as painless as possible. In two hours, you’re good to go. Groups are small to keep the sessions interactive. (Link to sign up).

Is this for you?

If your organization is based in the European Union or it has subsidiaries in one of the EU member states, then yes, this newsletter is for you. But even if you don’t, I’ve noticed that European companies don’t restrict these programs to their EU employees: they roll out pay transparency across the globe and include their global workforce. If you are competing for workers against EU companies, then you might want to consider becoming more transparent about your pay & reward policies to stay competitive. Just a thought.

Isn’t this a long way off?

That depends on how much you (still) have to do and of your company size:

EU Pay Transparency reporting cadence

You might respond that 2027 is a long way off. And you are right. But you’ll have to report on your 2026 compensation data. Which means that you have two years left to get your house in order. And if your organization has a gender pay gap, you want to know sooner rather than later so you can deliver an excellent first report that demonstrates your commitment to paying people equally.

Where should you start?

I always recommend that you start by reading the Directive. It’s available in 24 languages and not complex or long. Once you’ve read the text, you have a good understanding of what is expected. But the Directive doesn’t prescribe how to implement equal pay, and that’s where I want to support you. If you send me your questions, I’ll be happy to answer them in the next article. Deal?