Slovakia's Parliament has approved the transposition of the EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970) into local law under the Equal Pay Act. The legislation has taken effect on June 7, 2026, and applies to all employers in the public and private sectors, with certain reporting requirements for companies with 100 or more employees. Although the legislation closely follows the directive's provisions, it deviates from certain requirements and adds others. Slovakia's Equal Pay Act, transposing the EU Pay Transparency Directive into law, creates a strict governance framework affecting pay structures, recruitment and gender pay gap reporting.
Slovakia's Equal Pay Act: Governance framework
| Provision and timing | Slovakia | Alignment with the directive |
|---|---|---|
| Category of worker | Defined as employees performing the same work or work of equal value who are grouped by their employer according to objective gender-neutral criteria — including complexity, responsibility, effort, working conditions and other factors relevant to the specific job or position — while taking into account soft skills, in particular, social and communication skills. The criteria shall be agreed between the employer and the employees' representatives. | Aligned with the directive |
| Transparency prior to employment Compliance from: June 7, 2026 | Employers will need to provide information on initial pay and benefit levels (or ranges) in job postings or before interview or prior to contract. Employers are prohibited from asking about an applicant's current salary or salary history. | Aligned with the directive |
| Transparency on pay criteria Compliance from: June 7, 2026 | Employers will be required to make information available to workers on criteria used to determine pay and benefit levels and pay progression (which must be objective and gender-neutral). The requirement on pay progression will not apply to employers with fewer than 50 employees. | Aligned with the directive |
| Employee right to information Compliance from: 2028 (based on 2027 data*) | Employees will be entitled to information on their individual pay level and average pay levels for workers performing the same work or work of equal value, broken down by gender, which must be provided within two months, and additional/reasoned explanations within 30 days. The right to information does not apply where disclosure would make it possible to identify the remuneration of another specific employee. In such cases, access to the information is limited to employee representatives, the Labour Inspectorate and the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights, with employee representatives or the National Centre providing an employee with advice on their rights without onward disclosure of the underlying data to the requesting employee. *The right to information applies "for the first time for the year 2027." Our assumption is that first requests must therefore be in 2028. | Aligned with the directive except for timing |
| Gender pay gap reporting First compliance by: June 7, 2027 (over part-year 2026 data) | Employers with 100 or more employees must report periodically on gender pay gaps by entity and by category of worker. Employers with 100–249 employees report every three years; employers with 250 or more employees report annually. Reporting begins on June 7, 2027, for employers with 150 or more employees and on June 7, 2031, for employers with 100–149 employees. The first reporting cycle covers the period from August 1 to December 31, 2026. Subsequent reporting deadlines move to April 15. Entity‑level gaps are reported to the regulator; category‑level gaps are reported internally and to employee representatives. | Aligned with the directive except for timing |
| Pay gap assessments | Where a gender pay gap of 5% or more is identified at category of worker level and cannot be justified on objective, gender‑neutral grounds or corrected within six months, employers must conduct a joint pay assessment in cooperation with employee representatives and develop an action plan to address the gaps. A joint pay assessment must take place within two months after the initial period of six months to justify or remedy pay gaps of 5% or more. | Aligned with the directive |
| Pay structures Compliance from: July 31, 2026 | Employers must have formal pay structures based on gender‑neutral criteria, including responsibility, skills, effort and working conditions. Pay structures and pay increases must align with these criteria and categories of worker. Agreement with employee representatives (if any) is required on the gender‑neutral criteria underpinning the pay structure. | Aligned with the directive |
| Other matters (including penalties) | Failure to comply with gender pay gap reporting obligations may result in administrative fines ranging from 4,000 to 8,000 euros. The legislation also extends the right to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value to employees of the same gender, allowing same‑gender comparators in equal pay claims. | National provision exceeding the directive |
Employers should prepare for the implementation of the pay transparency legislation, including the development of any databases and reporting systems to support compliance. Slovakia had an unadjusted gender pay gap of 15.7% as of 2024 compared with the EU average of 11.1% (Eurostat data).
Contacts
