Pay Transparency Directive: a Structural Opportunity for Mums

The clock is ticking. EU Member States must transpose the Pay Transparency Directive into national law by the 7th of June 2026. While much of the public conversation focuses on compliance, reporting, and legal risk, this directive represents something far more profound: a structural opportunity to improve organisational culture, and as a result, boost long-term growth, innovation and profitability.

Today, the gender pay gap in Europe still hovers at around 13%, while the pensions gap reaches a staggering 30%. Behind these numbers lies a persistent and often overlooked reality: women, and especially mothers, continue to face systemic pay inequities. (1)

The so-called motherhood penalty is measurable, widespread, and deeply embedded in workplace structures. Pay transparency is a critical first step toward exposing and addressing these inequalities.

What is concretely changing?

The directive introduces several key measures that will fundamentally alter how organisations approach pay:

• Salary transparency in job postings - ensuring candidates know pay ranges upfront

• A ban on asking for pay history - preventing past inequities from compounding

• Mandatory pay reporting for companies with 100+ employees

• Expanded rights for employees - including access to pay level information across all company sizes

• Coverage of contracted workers -  extending protections beyond traditional employment

• Legal recognition of intersectionality - acknowledging that overlapping identities can intensify discrimination

• Enforcement mechanisms - including fines and potential exclusion from public contracts for non-compliance (2)

Importantly, implementation is already underway. The French-speaking Community of Belgium has taken early steps, with partial rules in force since January 2025. Other countries, such as Finland and Cyprus, are drafting legislation with significant penalties. Finland has proposed fines ranging from €5,000 to €80,000. In Flanders, discussions have even included fines specifically targeting companies that continue to pay women less. (3)

The signal is clear: transparency is no longer optional.

Why is this directive so relevant to mums? 

Motherhood too often triggers a cascade of disadvantages: slowed career progression, reduced earnings, and long-term financial impacts that extend into retirement. Yet, these outcomes are largely ignored by most companies. This directive is a good first step to change that reality. The gender pay and pensions gaps are the result of long-standing norms, assumptions, and organisational practices that have gone largely unchallenged. (4)

Pay transparency is often  framed as a technical or administrative requirement. In reality, it represents a deep cultural shift. Some Member States are already exploring family-related reporting, including tracking maternity, paternity, and parental leave alongside pay outcomes. (5)

This moves the focus from what the gap is to why it exists: how does pay progression differ for mothers vs. non-mothers; what happens to compensation after parental leave, and whether flexible work arrangements impact long-term earnings.

Collecting and analysing data to answer these questions will help identify where the motherhood penalty is created and, more importantly, how it can be dismantled.

This is a concrete opportunity to:

• Build cultures grounded in transparency and trust

• Strengthen psychological safety, where employees feel empowered to question inequities

• Reassess promotion and compensation frameworks

• Design better return-to-work support for mothers

• Ensure equal opportunities are not just stated, but measurable and real

At its core, the Pay Transparency Directive is about visibility. And visibility changes behaviour.

Rather than viewing this directive as a compliance burden, forward-looking companies should treat it as a catalyst for positive change—an opportunity to reshape and improve organisational culture that supports sustained growth, innovation and profitability.

For mothers, this could be transformative.

Not because transparency alone will eliminate the motherhood penalty—but because it will create the conditions for organisations to finally see it, measure it, and act on it.

Author: Agata Spissu

References: 

1. Gender pay gap: Council adopts new rules on pay transparency - Consilium

2. Pay transparency in the EU - Consilium

3. Directive (EU) 2023/970; Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (2024) decree on pay transparency (effective January 2025); Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health draft legislation (2024); Cyprus Ministry of Labour consultation documents (2024); Flemish Government policy discussions on enforcement measures (2024–2025).

4. Op-ed: The cost of motherhood and the gender pay gap | UN Women – Headquarters

5. EU Pay Transparency Directive | Deloitte Belgium

6. Pay transparency is a cultural shift, not a reporting exercise