Spain: The EU Pay Transparency Directive

Implementation and actions

What is the current implementation status and timing?

The Directive has not yet been implemented in Spain and the 7 June 2026 transposition deadline was not met.

In April 2026, Spain's Ministry of Labour and Social Economy launched a public consultation on a draft Royal Decree aimed at transposing the Directive ahead of the formal drafting stage; the consultation closed in May 2026.

On 1 July 2026, the Ministry formally presented a draft Royal Decree amending Royal Decree 902/2020 to the social partners in the context of the social dialogue process. A second meeting of the social dialogue table was held in mid-July 2026, at which the main trade union confederations (CCOO and UGT) submitted a detailed written document to the Ministry setting out their strong opposition to the draft.

The unions consider the draft to represent only a "partial" transposition of the Directive, criticising both its substance and the legal vehicle chosen, In particular, they argue that certain aspects of the Directive require legislation of a statutory rank (i.e. an Act of Parliament) which cannot be achieved by Royal Decree alone.

In response to the union's criticism, the Ministry committed to revising the draft and presenting a new proposal with a view to reaching agreement with the unions, though it has not specified what changes will be made. The first draft should therefore be treated as indicative only.

The first draft focused on amending the existing framework governing pay registers and equality plans. Therefore, the draft presented significant gaps, including the absence of any provisions on:

• the pre-contractual phase (including the obligation to provide salary band information to candidates before hiring, the prohibition on requesting candidates' pay history and the requirement for gender neutral job advertisements
• the extension of obligations to public sector employees (civil servants and statutory staff)
• a public monitoring and reporting mechanism for gender pay gaps across companies, and 
• reforms to procedural and enforcement rules (including burden of proof in pay discrimination cases, limitation periods and the sanctions regime).

As this draft remains subject to ongoing negotiation and is expected to be substantially revised, employers should continue to monitor upcoming legislative developments closely. The content described below reflects the current draft only and may change significantly before the text is finalised.

What preparatory steps are you advising clients to take, including ensuring they have access to the required data?

It is advisable to carry out preliminary calculations to determine whether there are any groups of employees or levels at risk, identify areas for improvement and then establish an action plan for 2026. If there is a pay gap of 5% or more, a simulation of the current situation could be carried out to be prepared and allow room for rectification.

Other proactive actions include:

• creating a job map, to ensure consistency in job configuration and job evaluation and to ensure they have the appropriate processes and systems in place to collect the information that must be reported on the pay gap; and
• assessing the impact that the requirement to publish salary bands in job offers and the prohibition on requesting candidates' pay history may have on companies' talent attraction strategies and processes.

Please click here for more on actions employers can take in preparing for the Directive.

Implementing the Directive's requirements

Which workers are in scope?

It is anticipated that national laws will align with the Directive definition of a worker requiring the existence of an employment contract or employment relationship defined by law, collective agreements, or practice in force in that Member State.

The definition of "worker" is linked to the concept of "employee" in Spain (working on the basis of an employment agreement) and would include any kind of employment (temporary and indefinite employment, full-time or part-time employment, employment through authorised temporary agents, training contracts, employees linked through special employment relationships as senior managers etc.).

Who will be workers' representatives?

We are awaiting further details of implementing legislation.

It is likely that "workers representatives" will refer to employee representatives on the company level (i.e. works councils/personnel delegates). Where employee representatives are not in place, it is likely it will refer to trade union representation, such as through trade union branches ("secciones sindicales") if they exist, or, if they do not, through the trade unions that are the most representative in the company's sector, and which also reflects the approach to negotiation of equality plans.

We may possibly see also the creation of ad hoc committees of employees.

Are there any proposals around the methodology and tools for assessing "equal value"?

Existing legislation mandates equal pay for work of equal value, prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any aspect. To comply with these regulations, the Ministry of Labour, and Social Economy, along with other organisations, provides tools for job evaluations, which help companies to:

• conduct job evaluations as a component of the diagnosis of the remuneration situation in the company which is part of their equality plan;
• prepare the current mandatory remuneration registers, including arithmetic means and medians of salaries and supplements and extra-salary perceptions of the workforce distributed by groups of equal value in the company; and

• evaluate jobs from a gender perspective for other purposes.

  In accordance with current law, a job evaluation is carried out on the basis of factors and sub-factors that must be assessed for each of the jobs in the company's workforce, grouped by employee categories. Examples include:

• Versatility of broad definition of duties
• Physical, mental, and emotional effort
• Organisational, coordination and supervisory responsibilities
• Functional responsibilities
• Autonomy
• Educational, professional, and training conditions.
• Skills etc.

After assessing the company's jobs, a tool automatically groups together jobs of equal value, enabling compliance with the legally established aims and objectives. While collective agreements establish the professional classification systems through which companies must structure their workforces, these classification systems may not be useful for defining equal work/work of equal value.

We are awaiting further details of measures to be introduced to align with the Directive. It is anticipated that any regulations introduced will be similar to the current ones. Employers should note that it is highly likely that the Directive's implementation will activate consultation rights for co-determination bodies in line with current legislation on related obligations.

How is pay defined?

It is anticipated that legislation will clarify what pay elements are included and excluded from the definition of pay and, in light of existing regulations, will refer to any type of remuneration, whether salary related or non-salary related.

The current law requiring a salary register takes into account the whole of an employee's remuneration i.e. their base salary, each of the supplements and each of the extra-salary perceptions.

How are the requirements for transparency for job applicants being implemented?

The current draft Royal Decree does not address transparency obligations in the pre-contractual phase. This represents one of the most significant gaps identified by the trade unions, who have described the omission as a "total gap" rather than a partial insufficiency.

Specifically, the draft fails to implement the following obligations set out in the Directive:

• the right of job candidates to receive information on the initial salary or salary band for the role before being hired
• the prohibition on employers asking candidates about their pay history, and 
• the requirement for gender neutral vacancy advertisements.

The unions have argued that these omissions significantly undermine the transposition of the Directive. Further amendments are expected before the legislation is finalised; however given that some of these obligations may be considered to require statutory-rank legislation, it remains uncertain whether they will be addressed in the current Royal Decree or must await separate legislative action.  

How are the requirements for transparency for workers being implemented?

The draft Royal Decree introduces a new individual right for workers to request and receive in writing information on their individual pay level and on average pay levels, broken down by sex, for groups or categories of workers performing the same work or work of equal value. The request may be made directly by the worker, through their legal representative or through the competent equality promotion body.

The employer must provide the information within a maximum of two months of receipt of the request, inform all staff annually of this right and of the procedure for exercising it, and ensure the format is accessible to persons with disabilities. Where the information provided is inaccurate or incomplete, the worker has the right to request reasonable additional clarifications and to receive a reasoned response.

The draft also declares null and void – pursuant to Article 17.1 of the Workers' Statute – any clauses in individual agreements or unilateral employer decisions that prevent workers from disclosing information about their remuneration.

Regarding pay registers, the draft:

• introduces the concept of "average pay levels", requiring a more granular breakdown that expressly distinguishes base salary from pay supplements, in line with the Directive's terminology
• extends the obligation to consult workers' legal representatives (with a minimum notice period of ten days) not only prior to the preparation of the pay register, but also when substantial changes are made to it
• requires pay levels to be expressed in terms of gross annual remuneration and gross hourly remuneration, and 
• removes the explicit reference to the current Article 5(3) to representatives' right to access the "full content" of the register (access continues to be facilitated through representatives, but without formally recognising the right to full content).

Additionally, the draft incorporates the definition of "gender pay gap" from Article 3.1(c) of the Directive; the difference between the average pay levels of women and men, expressed as a percentage of the average male level.

Regarding small employers: The draft exempts companies with fewer than 50 workers from obligations related to pay progression criteria. While permitted under the Directive, the trade unions have objected to this limitation, arguing that the obligation should not be size-dependent.

Current position (unchanged from existing law)

Employees can access the remuneration register through their legal representative, who has access to the full content of the register with averaged data. Where there are no legal representatives, employees may access the register directly but are limited to the percentage differences in averaged remuneration between men and women.

How are the gender pay reporting requirements being implemented?

The draft Royal Decree substantially reinforces the existing pay audit regime. Key changes introduced include:

• Action plan and timelines: The action plan for correcting unjustified pay differences must include remuneration within a reasonable period that may not in any case exceed two months, together with a system for monitoring implementation and evaluating the effectiveness of measures adopted in previous audits. This goes beyond the Directive itself, which does not set a specific deadline for remediation.
• Minimum audit content: The audit analysis must include a gender breakdown for each professional group or category, information on average pay levels (in accordance with the new Article 10) and any differences therein, together with objective and gender neutral reasons justifying such differences where applicable.
• Post-parental leave analysis: As a new requirement, the audit must analyse the proportion of workers who received a pay increase upon returning from parental, adoption or foster care leave in cases where improvements were made in their professional group or category during that period.
• Disclosure obligations: The employer must make all information relating to the pay audit available to workers and their legal representatives, and must notify the competent equality body of the audit's completion.

Notable gap – public monitoring mechanism: The draft does not establish a public information system for gender pay gap data. The Directive requires companies above certain thresholds to periodically report pay gap data and envisages the existence of a body responsible for collecting, analysing and publishing that information. The unions have criticised the draft for keeping the pay register primarily as an internal company tool, without creating the public transparency mechanism required by the Directive. 

Current position (unchanged from existing law)

All companies (regardless of size) must maintain a pay register. For companies with 50 or more employees, if the average remuneration of one gender is 25% or more higher than that of the other, the company must justify that the difference is not gender-related. Employers with 50 or more employees must also carry out a job evaluation, conduct a pay audit and create an equality plan. Pay registers must be updated annually; equality plans must be renewed at least every four years.

When counting workers for the purposes of the Directive's pay reporting thresholds, will only workers of a particular "legal entity" be in scope?

There is no definitive answer at present but in line with the current regulations it is believed that the trigger will only take into account the number of workers in a particular legal entity and only at a group level in cases of "group of companies for labour purposes".

Do we have details on how the requirement for a joint pay assessment will be implemented?

We are awaiting further details.

Do we have details as to how the Directive obligations will be enforced and potential sanctions?

We are waiting for details of measures to align with the Directive. However, it is believed that the sanctions will range from 7,500 EUR to 225,018 EUR depending on the seriousness with which they are classified.

However, the trade unions have specifically called for a more stringent sanction regime as part of the full transposition of the Directive, as well as reforms to procedural rules including the reversal of the burden of proof in pay discrimination claims and a review of applicable limitation periods. These aspects are not addressed in the current draft Royal Decree.

Are there any tools or guidance available to support employers?

The draft Royal Decree provides for the update of the job evaluation procedure and its associated guidance (Order PCM/1047/2022), as well as the technical guide for conducting pay audits with a gender perspective. Job evaluations and pay audits carried out under the current rules will remain valid until they are adapted, within the period to be specified in the transitional provision or, in the case of audits, upon the review of the relevant equality plan if this occurs earlier. 

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