Pay transparency: what the directive and the French bill change for your job offers

Article updated on 23 September 2026. The bill is being examined by the French Parliament: its content and timetable may still change.

Pay transparency requires employers to tell candidates what a role pays before hiring them, and prohibits them from asking what a candidate earns or used to earn. These rules come from Directive (EU) 2023/970 of 10 May 2023, which France was due to transpose by 7 June 2026. The French bill was tabled in the Senate on 10 September 2026 and has not yet been passed. For a recruiter, three changes matter: a pay range in every published job offer, no more questions about current or past salary, and a burden of proof that weighs more heavily on the employer in the event of a dispute. In the bill as tabled, these recruitment measures would apply from the day after the law is published in the Journal officiel.

What the pay transparency directive says

Directive (EU) 2023/970 aims at equal pay between women and men. Five of its articles directly affect recruitment and pay policy.

Article 5: informing candidates about starting pay

Candidates have the right to know the initial pay or its range, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, as well as the provisions of the collective agreement that apply to the role. The directive requires this information to arrive early enough to allow informed negotiation, “such as in a published job vacancy notice, prior to the job interview or otherwise”.

The same article prohibits employers from asking candidates about their pay history, in their current job or in previous ones. It also requires job titles and recruitment processes to be non-discriminatory. These obligations apply to all employers, whatever their size.

Articles 6 and 7: accessible criteria and a right to information

Employers make available to their employees the criteria used to set their pay and their pay progression. These criteria must be objective and gender-neutral. Member States may exempt employers with fewer than 50 employees from the part that concerns progression.

Every employee may also request their own pay level and the average pay levels, broken down by sex, of employees doing the same work or work of equal value. The employer replies within two months at most. Clauses that prohibit employees from disclosing their pay are no longer allowed.

Articles 9 and 10: pay gap reports based on headcount

Companies with at least 250 employees publish a report on the gender pay gap every year, with a first report due by 7 June 2027. Those with 150 to 249 employees publish it on the same date, then every three years. Those with 100 to 149 employees publish it for the first time by 7 June 2031, then every three years.

When this report reveals an average gap of at least 5% in a category of workers, which the employer does not justify with objective criteria and does not correct within six months, the employer must carry out a joint pay assessment with employee representatives.

Article 18: the burden of proof shifts

In an equal pay dispute, an employer that has failed to meet its transparency obligations must itself prove that there was no discrimination. The only exception: a failure that is manifestly unintentional and minor. A job offer published without a pay range therefore becomes a piece of evidence.

Pay transparency law: where France stands on 23 September 2026

The bill transposing the directive was presented to the Council of Ministers on 10 September 2026. It was tabled in the Senate the same day (No. 944), under the accelerated procedure: a single reading in each chamber before a possible joint committee. As of 23 September 2026, the Senate legislative file shows no date yet for examination in committee or in plenary. Nothing applies today, and the text may be amended.

On one point, France would go further than the directive: pay gap indicators would be reported from 50 employees, instead of 100. The Government also announces that the current gender equality index will be kept in 2027, with the switch to the new indicators from 2028 in the private sector (report of the Council of Ministers of 10 September 2026, in French).

The timetable below is taken from Articles 21 and 22 of the bill as tabled and its impact assessment (both in French). It is subject to the vote.

The indicator by category would be reported every three years between 50 and 249 employees, and every year above that. In the civil service, vacancy notices would have to state the pay or its range four months after enactment.

What the bill changes in your job offers

Article 4 of the bill creates two rules in the French Labour Code. The first: candidates receive information on the initial pay range and on the collective agreement provisions used to set it. The obligation is met if this information appears in the job offer. Without a published offer (unsolicited application, direct approach, employee referral), the employer provides it in writing before or during the interview.

The second: it becomes prohibited to publish a job offer that does not state a pay range and, where applicable, the references of the applicable collective agreement. The sentence is impersonal (“it is prohibited to publish”): it targets the offer itself, whether it appears on your careers site, a job site, a social network or through a recruitment agency.

The bill provides for an administrative penalty of up to €450 per breach, doubled for a repeat offence within five years. The real risk lies elsewhere: with the burden of proof reversed, an offer without a pay range weakens the employer’s defence in an equal pay dispute.

The text sets no maximum width for the range. A range that is too wide tells no one anything and is hard to justify. Examples of rewording:

Always state the unit (gross, annual or monthly) and separate fixed pay from variable pay. For the rest of the ad, see our method for writing a job offer that converts.

Job interviews: the questions you can no longer ask

The French Labour Code already requires the questions put to a candidate to have a direct and necessary link with the role (Article L. 1221-6). The bill adds one sentence: this information “may not relate to the candidate’s current or past pay”. In practice, these questions become prohibited:

• “How much do you earn today?”
• “What was your salary in your previous job?”
• “Can you send us your latest payslip?”
• A “current salary” field in an application form, a phone prequalification script or a chatbot.

Questions about family situation, plans for pregnancy, origin, religious beliefs or health are already prohibited. In the version tabled, the text does not cover salary expectations. The safest practice is to present the range first, then ask the candidate whether it suits them.

Pay transparency: what recruiters should prepare now

The accelerated procedure shortens the parliamentary process, and the recruitment rules would apply with no transition period. Seven workstreams to open now:

1. Classify jobs by value. The bill defines work of equal value through precise criteria: qualifications or professional practice, experience, technical and non-technical skills, responsibilities, working conditions, physical and nervous strain. Group your jobs according to these criteria.
2. Build or review pay scales. Each category gets a pay range. Check that your current employees fall within it: the right to information will bring gaps to light.
3. Set a range for each open role based on the scale, not on the last salary negotiated.
4. Update your job offer templates: mandatory pay range field, unit, fixed and variable pay, applicable collective agreement.
5. Clean up forms and your ATS: remove any field on current or past salary, including in prequalification questionnaires.
6. Train managers and recruiters on prohibited questions and on how to answer “why this range?”. One manager improvising in an interview is enough to create a breach.
7. Align your partners and document: agencies and multiposting tools publish the range on every offer, and you keep a record of the criteria behind each starting salary.

Does showing the salary make a job offer more attractive?

Candidates expect it, and more and more offers already do it:

• 46% of French employees surveyed do not respond to a job offer that does not state the salary, and 67% rank salary as their first criterion for joining a company (Robert Half, survey of 1,000 employees conducted on 30 March 2023, published on 8 June 2023).
• In the United States, 74% of employees say they are less interested in an offer without a pay range. Among organizations that show a range, 70% receive more applications and 66% see better-quality candidates (SHRM, February 2023 surveys of 484 employees and 1,386 HR professionals).
• In 2025, 75% of offers posted directly on France Travail, the French public employment service, stated a salary, compared with 42% of offers coming from partner job sites, up 17 points in two years (France Travail data cited in the bill’s impact assessment, September 2026).

Today, more than half of the offers coming from partner sites do not state a salary: showing it still sets you apart. Once the law is in force, every offer will do so and the advantage will disappear. We explain this effect in our article Why show the salary in job offers?

Frequently asked questions about pay transparency

Is pay transparency already mandatory in France?

No. The transposition deadline (7 June 2026) has passed, but the bill has not been passed. The obligations will arise when the law is published in the Journal officiel.

Should you show a range or an exact salary?

The directive accepts either the initial pay or a range. The French bill refers to a pay range, without setting its width. It must be based on objective, gender-neutral criteria.

Are small companies concerned?

Yes for recruitment: the pay range and the ban on pay history questions apply to all employers. In France, indicator reporting starts at 50 employees.

Can you still ask candidates about their salary expectations?

The bill as tabled prohibits questions about current or past pay, not about expectations. Present the range before asking the question.

What does an employer risk by publishing an offer without a pay range?

An administrative penalty of up to €450 per breach, doubled for a repeat offence. Above all, in an equal pay dispute, the employer has to prove that there was no discrimination.

When every offer shows a salary, what makes the difference?

Two offers for the same role, in the same city, with the same range: salary no longer separates them. The difference comes first from who sees the offer. Across Seeqle campaigns, 80% of the profiles reached are passive: we reach them through display, audio and social networks, where they spend their time, not on job sites. Seeqle’s Attract Agent distributes your offers to them on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube and Spotify, then on online media and apps: more than 2 million sites and apps, with more than 400,000 targeting criteria. More in our guide to distributing your job offers widely.

It then comes from prequalification. The Match Agent analyzes every application, assigns an explained score out of 5 and sends it back to your ATS, depending on what your ATS allows. The decision stays human. Across our campaigns, 53% of applications are qualified on average.