Italy publishes draft legislation to implement the Gender Pay Transparency Directive

At a glance

• Italy has published draft legislation to implement the Gender Pay Transparency Directive (Directive).
• The legislation covers all obligations set out in the Directive.
• The legislation will now be discussed by ministers and, if approved, is likely to come into force by the 7 June 2026 deadline. However, for now, the exact timeframe is uncertain.

Italy has now published its draft legislation implementing the Directive. The terms of the legislation will be discussed at ministerial level shortly, and are still subject to change. At this stage, however, it seems likely that Italy will now be in a position to fully implement the Directive by the 7 June 2026 deadline. However, the speed of progress of the ministerial debate is key and it is, therefore, too soon to confirm precise timeframes.

The draft legislation covers all obligations set out in the Directive including expressly setting out that:

Scope

• The Directve applies to all public and private employers and to all workers, including those in a managerial position. The legislation expressly sets out that the following workers are included:
• Permanent / temporary enployees.
• Agency workers.
• Apprentices.
• Domestic workers.
• Collaborators under coordinated and continuous arrangements (so-called Co-Co-Co workers).

Pre-employment pay transparency

• Employers must provide salary or other pay information in job postings. This goes slightly beyond the Directive's requirements which provide that pay information need only be provided in such a manner as to ensure an informed and transparent negotiation on pay (albeit that job vacancy notices are suggested here by way of example).
• Job applicants cannot be asked for previous salary information.

Categories of workers

• 'Same work' refers to duties that are identical or classified at the same legal level under the applicable national collective agreement (CCNL) or, if none is applied, under the CCNL signed by the most representative national trade unions for the relevant sector.
• 'Work of equal value' means different work carried out through comparable duties, as defined by the classification levels in the applicable CCNL or, if none is applied, by the CCNL signed by the most representative national trade unions for the relevant sector.
• Assessment of work of equal value must follow common, objective, gender-neutral criteria, including skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions, as well as any other factor relevant to the specific job or position.
• National collective bargaining classification systems serve as the reference tool for comparison. Employers may adopt their own professional classification systems for determining pay, supplementing the national collective agreement, provided that they are based on objective and gender‑neutral criteria.
• Comparison of the same or equal-value work may be made across different employers when pay derives from the same statutory provision or collective agreement, or from centrally established company‑level agreements or regulations that apply to several organisations or undertakings belonging to a corporate group.
• The Ministry of Labour may issue guidance on categorisation of workers by 31 December 2026.

Right to pay information

• Workers have the right to request average pay levels broken down by sex for categories of workers performing the same or equivalent work. Employers must reply within two months.
• Employers must remind workers annually of their right to request pay information. Employers with 100 or more employees may publish this reminder internally eg on the intranet.

Gender pay gap reports

• Employers with 150 or more employees will be required to publish their first gender pay gap report by 7 June 2027. Employers with 100 – 149 employees will be required to publish by 7 June 2031.
• Employers applying a unified group pay policy may aggregate data nationally.
• The gender pay gap report data must be sent to the national montoring body (established by the legislation within the Ministry of Labour). The data on gender pay gaps by worker category musy be accessible to worker representatives and the labour inspectorate and equality bodies.
• Employers with fewer than 100 employees are not required to report their gender pay gaps.

Joint pay assessments

• Where there is an unjustified gender pay gap of 5% or more which is not remedied within six months, a joint pay assessment must be carried out.
• Any corrective mesaures identified by the join pay assessment must be corrected within six months (this contrasts with the Directive which allows 'a reasonable period of time').

Remedies / sanctions

• The remedies for breach of the new legislation will allow employees, unions, equality bodies and authorised associations to bring legal action under existing equality laws. The penalties for discrimination will be those already established in the Italian Equal Opportunities Code.