Spain: The EU Pay Transparency Directive

What is the current implementation status and timing?

The Directive has not yet been implemented in Spain. No draft legislative proposal has to date been published but the Directive will introduce significant changes to the existing law. Implementation is anticipated in 2026.

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. It will likely include part-time, fixed-term, temporary agency workers, managers; and where criteria are met, atypical workers (e.g. zero hours, trainees, apprentices, platform workers).

Who will be worker 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.

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 legal requirements. 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?

We are awaiting further details of measures to be introduced to align with the Directive.

How are the requirements for transparency for workers being implemented?

We are awaiting further details of measures to be introduced to align with the Directive. It is unlikely that national laws implementing the Directive will exempt employers with less than 50 employees from the duty to provide their employees with information on the criteria for pay, pay levels, and pay progression. This would be in line with the existing obligation for companies to carry out a salary register.

Click here for current position

At present in Spain employees can access the remuneration register through their legal representative. Via their legal representative they have access to the full content of the register which must be provided with the averaged data of the actual remuneration amounts.

Employees can also access the register directly but are limited to only accessing the percentage differences in the averaged remuneration between men and women, broken down by the nature of the remuneration and the applicable classification system must be provided to them.

How are the gender pay reporting requirements being implemented?

Regulations already exist in Spain, and it may be that these requirements will remain in force for companies with 50 employees or less. The new provisions set out in the Directive (and which are not regulated in the current legislation) may then only apply to companies with more than 100 employees. Current regulations on gender pay reporting will need to be updated to reflect the requirement to justify pay gaps of 5% or more. Updates may also be required to remuneration audits and equality plans due to the time frames involved.

Click here for current position

In Spain, existing legal requirements provide that:
 

• All companies (regardless of size) must provide a remuneration register. For companies with 50 or more employees, if the average remuneration of employees of one gender is 25% or more higher than that of the other gender, the company must justify that this difference is not related to gender. While the remuneration register does not need to be filed with the governing body or posted publicly, employers are required to store it and make it available for inspection.
• Employers with 50 or more employees must also create a job evaluation system, conduct a remuneration audit, and create an equality plan.
• Remuneration registers must be published annually, and equality plans every four years at the most.
• 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.

Are there any tools or guidance available to support employers?

Existing tools are in place to support compliance with related obligations; no specific updates have currently been identified.

Return to main EU Pay Transparency Directive page