Estonia has amended the Employment Contracts Act (ECA) to transpose parts of the EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970). Earlier this year, the government lobbied the European Commission to delay implementation of the directive and ease certain aspects of it to avoid imposing additional administrative burden on employers, but the commission rejected the proposal. Estonia had an unadjusted gender pay gap of 18.8% as of 2024, the highest in the EU, compared with the EU average of 11.1% (Eurostat data).
The amendments, effective July 13, 2026, introduce the following changes:
- Employers must disclose the starting salary or salary range to job candidates before job interviews. Employers must also inform candidates about additional remuneration conditions that may apply due to collective bargaining agreements
- Employers are prohibited from inquiring about a job candidate's pay history and current pay
- Employees are entitled to discuss their compensation freely, including with their colleagues at work
The amendments also added a new provision in the ECA to establish the principle of equal pay for equal work, requiring companies to ensure that they deliver equal pay for men and women performing the same work or work of equal value.
Employers should align their hiring practices with the amended labor legislation. Key provisions of the directive not addressed by the amendments include compensation data reporting obligations, employee rights to request average pay data and internal pay gap assessments. The government has indicated it remains opposed to full implementation of the directive for the reasons cited earlier this year. The June 7, 2026, deadline to transpose the directive has passed, but the vast majority of EU member states have yet to fully do so. The European Commission is expected to launch infringement proceedings against those governments that have missed the deadline, but such proceedings are normally part of a long and slow process.
