Belgium is actively preparing to transpose Directive (EU) 2023/970 of May 10, 2023, on pay transparency (Directive 2023/970) into federal law ahead of the June 7, 2026 deadline.
Given the upcoming measures, employers have every reason to anticipate the directive’s impact on future salary negotiations through concrete actions and to avoid common pitfalls.
Pitfall 1: My company has fewer than 100 employees, so it is not affected by the new pay transparency rules introduced by Directive (EU) 2023/970.
This is incorrect. Regardless of the number of employees, companies must comply with the following obligations starting June 7, 2026:
a) Indicate the starting salary or salary range to job candidates before the interview, either in the job advertisement or by directly informing shortlisted candidates. Terms like “competitive salary” or “market aligned” will therefore no longer be acceptable.
b) Refrain from asking candidates about their previous salary history.
Establish objective and gender-neutral criteria for setting salaries, salary levels, and salary progression (smaller companies with fewer than 50 employees may be exempt from the latter). These criteria should be based on competencies (degrees, training, languages, years of experience) and performance (quantitative and qualitative goals), and must be easily accessible to employees.
c) Provide, upon request and in writing, detailed information to employees about their own salary level and the average salary levels by gender within their job category. This data must be presented in a clear format and comply with GDPR. Employees will thus be able to see where they stand within their category without knowing the salary of any specific colleague.
Moreover, employees must not be prevented from voluntarily disclosing information about their own salaries.
Pitfall 2: My company will necessarily need to allocate many resources to establish a new internal job classification and transparent pay scales compliant with Directive (EU) 2023/970.
This will not necessarily be the case. According to Article 4.2 of Directive (EU) 2023/970, the BE-MAGIC project (Belgium – Modernisation and Adaptation of Gender-neutral Instruments of Classification) started in January 2025. This project mainly aims to develop tools for gender-neutral and objective job evaluation and classification systems that Belgian social partners and employers can easily use. Documents from the first workshop are already available on the website of the Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue.
Pitfall 3: Pay gap reporting obligations do not apply to my company because it has fewer than 150 employees.
This is not entirely true. The new pay gap reporting obligations under Directive (EU) 2023/970 will indeed apply from June 7, 2026, to companies with more than 150 employees. The first annual pay gap report for 2026 must be submitted to the designated authority by June 7, 2027, then annually for companies with 250 or more employees, and every three years for companies with 150 to 249 employees.
Companies with fewer than 150 employees are not exempt from all obligations. Reporting obligations will apply from June 7, 2031, for companies with 100 to 149 employees (or possibly fewer if Belgium lowers the threshold to 100 as allowed by the directive).
Additionally, reporting obligations already exist under Belgian law of April 22, 2012, aiming to combat the gender pay gap for companies with 50 or more employees. This law requires a biannual report analyzing pay structure to determine whether the company applies gender-neutral pay policies.
Pitfall 4: My company can wait for the final federal law transposing Directive (EU) 2023/970 before deciding on measures to take.
This is not recommended. The federal bill transposing Directive (EU) 2023/970 has not yet been published. However, since the directive sets clear obligations, companies (regardless of size) should not wait for the bill to be finalized before at least taking the following actions:
a) Issue necessary instructions to ensure recruitment procedures comply with the new requirements.
b) Conduct a pay audit (fixed and variable salaries and benefits) and identify any unjustified gender pay gaps based on objective criteria.
c) Define objective and neutral criteria for setting and progressing salaries (training, languages, years of experience, skills, performance), and based on these, establish or review existing job classifications and corresponding salary ranges applied internally.
d) Adjust evaluation processes if needed to ensure they align with the (revised) classification.
e) Correct unjustified pay gaps exceeding 5% through targeted salary adjustments or revisions to pay scales.
Without going into detail, the directive also provides for corrective measures (joint pay evaluations in case of gaps, reversal of burden of proof in disputes, etc.) and coercive sanctions (fines, full compensation for victims, exclusion from public contracts, etc.) to ensure effective enforcement. Compliance is therefore not optional for Belgian companies.
The Employment team at Altius closely monitors the progress of the federal law and the BE-MAGIC project and is available to answer any questions.
By Pauline Van Parys, Altius (pauline.vanparys@altius.com)
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