Spain has moved forward on partially transposing the EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970). Rather than mirroring the Directive’s minimum requirements, Spain is layering them onto its existing domestic equality framework, and going beyond the Directive in several key respects.
On 3 August 2026, Spain’s Ministry of Labour and Social Economy opened a consultation on a Draft Royal Decree amending Royal Decree 902/2020, on equal pay between women and men. The consultation period runs from 4 August through 24 August 2026. This follows an earlier public prior consultation launched on 24 April 2026, which ran through 8 May 2026.
Rather than creating a standalone transposition law, the draft incorporates the Directive’s gender pay gap reporting and joint pay assessment requirements into Spain’s existing obligations for employers to conduct pay audits and maintain equality plans. The result is a framework that, in several areas, is more demanding than the Directive’s baseline.
Spain Builds on an Existing Equality Framework
Spain already imposes pay equity obligations that predate the Directive. Under Royal Decree 902/2020, all employers must prepare and maintain a remuneration register covering their entire workforce, including the mean and median salary and benefits information for each category of employees, broken down by gender. Where a company with 50 or more employees has a pay gap of 25% or greater (mean or median), the employer must justify the pay differences under Art. 6(b) of Royal Decree 902/2020 and Art. 28 of the Workers’ Statute.
The draft retains these obligations and aligns the existing pay audit and action plan requirements closer to the Directive’s joint pay assessment standard.
A Lower Reporting Threshold: 50 Employees
The most significant departure from the Directive is scope. Where the Directive phases in reporting obligations for employers with 100 or more employees, Spain’s draft sets the pay gap reporting threshold at 50 employees.
Reporting deadlines otherwise track the Directive’s phased timeline:
- 250+ employees – Annual reporting, for the preceding calendar year, beginning 7 June 2027
- 150–249 employees – Every three years, for the preceding three years, beginning 7 June 2027
- 50–149 employees – Every three years, for the preceding three years, beginning 7 June 2031
The requirement that employers with 50 to 249 employees report every three years on the preceding three years goes beyond the Directive, which only requires reporting on the immediately preceding year.
The first six reporting indicators align with the first six indicators in Art. 9 of the Directive. For the seventh reporting indicator, Spain details a requirement for pay gaps by worker category that goes beyond the Directive (Art. 11.1(g)): the arithmetic means and medians of pay for groupings of jobs of equal value — even where those jobs sit in different sections of the professional classification or at different pay levels — reported on both an annual and hourly basis, disaggregated by base salary, each supplement, and each non-salary payment).
Workers’ representatives must be given access to the employer’s methodologies, and pay gap data for the previous four years must be made available on request.
Joint Pay Assessments Required for All Employers With 50+ Employees
Under the Directive, a joint pay assessment is triggered only when reporting reveals an unjustified pay gap of at least 5% in a worker category that is not remedied within six months. Spain takes a different path.
By aligning its existing pay audit obligation with the Directive’s JPA requirements, the draft effectively requires a joint pay assessment of every employer with 50 or more employees, regardless of reporting. There is no 5% trigger.
Spain’s revised pay audits must include:
- A job evaluation
- Identification and analysis of pay differences, drawing on information from the last three years
- An action plan to correct any inequality not justified on objective, gender-neutral criteria, prepared within six months
Pay audits must be made available to workers and their legal representatives, with notification to the newly formed Commission for Monitoring Pay Transparency. Audits are generally valid for four years, matching the validity period of equality plans.
Under the transitional provisions, pay audits already in force must be adapted by the end of their current validity period but are valid until then.
Article 7 Worker Right to Information
Consistent with Article 7 of the Directive, the draft (Art. 10) gives workers the right to request and receive, in writing, information on:
- Their individual pay, and
- Average pay, on an annual and hourly basis, broken down by sex, for groups, categories, or pay levels of workers performing the same work or work of equal value, as determined under the professional classification system.
Employers must respond within two months, and must respond to reasonable clarification requests within two months. Requests may be made once a year (or when circumstances change), and employers must remind workers of this right annually.
Workers may submit requests directly, through their legal representative, or through the Women’s Institute.
Pay Structure, Criteria, and Work of Equal Value
Companies must inform staff, clearly and accessibly, of the criteria used to determine pay, the pay levels for different jobs or professional categories, and, where applicable, pay progression. Employers with 50 or more employees must provide pay progression criteria under the terms of the applicable collective bargaining agreement, company agreement, or employment contract.
The draft also sets out detailed, objective factors for assessing work of equal value under Art. 28.1 of the Workers’ Statute — including the nature of the functions performed, educational and professional requirements, and working conditions — and directs that job evaluations meet standards of adequacy, completeness, and objectivity, free from gender stereotypes. The Ministry of Labour and the Women’s Institute will update the associated job evaluation tool and technical guidance.
Notably, Spain’s draft does not propose transposing the Directive’s pre-employment pay transparency requirements (Art. 5) — the obligation to disclose starting pay or ranges to applicants and the ban on requesting salary history. This is an area to watch as the draft advances.
Enforcement and Penalties
Oversight will sit with a newly created Commission for Monitoring Pay Transparency.
Enforcement relies on Spain’s existing sanctions framework under the Law on Infractions and Sanctions in the Social Order (LISOS), where penalties are tiered by severity (leve / grave / muy grave) and can range from roughly €70 to €225,018 for the most serious violations.
Spain also retains its existing shift in the burden of proof to employers where allegations give rise to well-founded indicia of discrimination.
How Trusaic Can Help
At Trusaic, we provide employers across the EU with solutions to comply confidently with the Directive.
Our Complete EU Pay Transparency Solution enables compliant pay systems, ensures gender-neutral job evaluations, and automates complex reporting obligations to keep you one step ahead of EU pay transparency enforcement.
- PayParity® analyzes your rewards data (compensation/benefits in kind) and quickly identifies any potential unjustified inequities. It enables you to more easily comply with Article 7 (right to information) and Article 6 requirements (pay setting and progression policy).
- Our Remediation Optimization Spend Analysis (R.O.S.A.) works as PayParity’s remediation engine to find the most cost-effective way to close nominal pay gaps to ensure compliance.
- Automated RTI workflows: Our bi-directional integrations with global HCM platforms allow pay equity data to flow securely from the Trusaic platform back into the HCM. Employees can then access their RTI reports directly within their existing HR systems. This eliminates manual report generation and reduces compliance risk.
- For organizations that prefer platform-based access, RTI reports can also be generated and delivered securely through the PayParity platform, with role-based permissions and full auditability.
- Salary Range Finder® ensures equitable pay at the point of hire to prevent any increases in pay gap and enables you to easily comply with the Directive’s salary range disclosure and salary history ban requirements.
- Pay Decisions: Generate fair, competitive offers instantly from Workday.
Trusaic is GDPR compliant and can assist any organization in any EU state in meeting its obligations under both the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
Visit our always updated Member State Transposition Monitor to stay on top of the latest EU Pay Transparency Directive developments.
