France has disclosed a draft bill to implement the Gender Pay Transparency Directive

At a glance

• France has disclosed a preliminary draft bill to implement the Gender Pay Transparency Directive (Directive). The bill introduces wide‑ranging new obligations for employers on pay transparency, gender pay reporting and job classification.
• The bill is at a very early stage and is still being discussed with trade unions. Trade unions have requested modification, and an amended draft is expected before the end of March 2026.
• The most recent indication on timing is that the Minister of Labour informed trade unions during the final consultation meeting on 19 March 2026 that the bill is expected to be presented to Parliament in late May 2026. However, no slot has been identified for its examination before the Parliament.

France has published a preliminary draft bill to implement the Directive. The bill introduces wide‑ranging new obligations for employers on pay transparency, gender pay reporting and job classification. These include:

Pay transparency during recruitment

• The draft bill strengthens pay transparency obligations at the hiring stage.
• Employers will be prohibited from asking candidates about their current or previous compensation and are required to provide information on the initial salary range and the applicable collective bargaining provisions used to determine pay.
• This information needs to be included in the job advertisement or otherwise provided in writing before or during the interview process. Job postings that do not include this information are prohibited.
• Contractual clauses preventing employees from disclosing their pay will also be prohibited.

Right to pay information during employment

• Employees will be granted an enhanced right to request information about their own compensation and the average compensation, broken down by gender, of employees in the same category performing identical work or work of equal value.
• Employers will be required to provide this information in writing, either directly or via union representatives or the Social and Economic Committee (Comité Social et Économique, CSE), and to inform employees annually of this right.
• Where disclosure could indirectly identify an individual due to a small group size (expected to be fewer than ten employees), employers can refuse the request (and must inform the employee of the refusal accordingly).

Gender pay reporting

• The current gender pay index will be replaced by a new index based on seven indicators, to be defined by decree.
• Employers with at least 250 employees are required to report annually, while those with 50 to 249 employees must report every three years.
• For companies employing between 50 and 99 employees, the CSE will have to be informed of the data used to calculate the indicators and their results. If the gender pay gap between women and men within categories of employees performing equal work or work of equal value (seventh indicator) is less than a score to be set by decree, the company will have to initiate a mandatory negotiation on professional equality in order to define corrective measures.
• For companies employing at least 100 employees, the CSE must be informed and consulted on the data used to calculate the indicators and their results. This opinion must then be provided to the Labour administration. If the seventh indicator is less than a score set by decree, the company will have to (1) justify the gap by objective reasons; and (2) initiate a mandatory negotiation on professional equality in order to define corrective measures.
• Results will be published on the Ministry of Labour’s website and the employer’s own website, with the exception of the seventh indicator.

Job classification 

• Employers will be required to establish a classification of employees performing work of equal value, either through a company or industry‑level agreement or, if no agreement can be reached by 31 December 2026, unilaterally (after consulting the CSE) for a limited period of three years.
• The criteria for assessing work of equal value will be expanded to include non‑technical skills and working conditions (in addition to the existing criteria under the Labour Code which already include professional knowledge; skills derived from acquired experience; responsibilities; and physical or mental strain).

Sanctions for non-compliance

• A new administrative penalty regime will apply for non‑compliance which includes:
  • fines of up to 1% of payroll applied once per fiscal year (or 2% in the case of repeated breaches within a five-year period) for failures relating to pay gap reporting and corrective measures; and
  • fixed fines for certain transparency and disclosure breaches including, for example, communicating the results of the indicators and providing information to job applicants (expected to be EUR450, but doubled for repeated breaches within five years).
• Employers will have the right to challenge penalties before the administrative courts.