Employment law 5 in 5: April 2025

At a glance

• Track Gender Pay Transparency Directive implementation.
• Focus on equality laws in the United Kingdom.
• Round-up of recent developments in Ireland.
• Round-up of recent developments in the US.
• Attend international employment law training.

Track Gender Pay Transparency Directive implementation

7 June 2026 is the deadline for EU Member States to transpose the Gender Pay Transparency Directive into local law. As the deadline approaches, implementation activity is increasing with, for example, draft laws recently published in the Netherlands. To help you monitor local transposition, we have published a tracker highlighting each country's implementation activity. Our tracker will be updated regularly.

The Directive's requirements significantly impact existing gender pay transparency regimes and introduce new, wide-ranging obligations for employers. Many countries will be implementing measures for the first time. The Directive's requirements include pre-employment pay transparency; an employee right to pay setting information; and an obligation for employers to report gender pay gaps. All employers are caught by the Directive's obligations, but employee thresholds apply for the purposes of gender pay gap reporting.

Focus on equality laws in the United Kingdom

The government is consulting on plans to introduce compulsory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers (with 250+ employees). The proposed framework closely mirrors the existing regime for reporting gender pay gap data and will form part of a new Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. To help shape measures in the new bill, a call for evidence is seeking evidence and views on a range of areas of equality policy including effective steps employers can take to reduce and prevent workplace sexual harassment.

In a widely publicised judgment, the Supreme Court has recently determined the meaning of ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 as referring to biological sex, not acquired or certificated sex under a Gender Recognition Certificate.

Round-up of recent developments in Ireland

As part of the government's commitment to reforms ensuring a sustainable pensions system, a new bill will allow employees to stay in employment until State Pension Age (currently 66). If someone with a contractual retirement age (CRA) below 66 refuses consent to retire at the CRA, their employer cannot enforce retirement without objective and reasonable justification.

Proposals for changes to Irish equality legislation have been published. Areas for reform include transposing EU Pay Transparency Directive requirements to publish remuneration levels or ranges in job advertisements; expanding the scope of positive action; removing permissions for differential pay rates for those with a disability; and extending time limits to apply for redress. Separately, a new gender pay gap reporting portal is being launched for companies reporting their gender pay gap in 2025. This year the threshold for reporting was lowered again, bringing companies with 50 or more employees in scope. The portal will be launched in Autumn, ahead of the reporting deadline.

Round-up of recent developments in the US

At the federal level, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO) directing all agencies to deprioritise enforcement of statutes and regulations that include disparate-impact liability; a federal district court in Illinois issued a nationwide injunction preventing the Department of Labour from enforcing the certification provision in President Trump’s DEI EO; and the US Supreme Court opened the door to increased ERISA litigation.

Employers continue to see new state laws. For example, Washington amended its Equal Pay and Opportunities Act and expanded covered uses of paid sick leave to include preparing for or participating in certain immigration proceedings; an amendment to Virginia law prohibits non-competes against non-exempt employees; and a proposed New Jersey bill would phase out the tip credit.

Attend international employment law training

During May and June 2025,  we are running international training courses giving practical guidance on employment law and best practice. Local employment lawyers deliver our half day workshops, providing an overview of key themes you need to know about employment law and best practice in your chosen country. They are valuable for anyone managing the challenges of entering, operating in, or exiting a country. Courses cover Germany, France, UK, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain,  and Italy.