Equal pay law: what the employer must do
Act No. 76/2026 Coll. acquired Effective June 7, 2026. It adopts Directive (EU) 2023/970 and, in addition to its own amendments, amends the Labour Code, Act No 5/2004 Coll. on Employment Services and Act No. 125/2006 Coll. on labor inspection. It is in the Labor Inspection Act that a sanction mechanism is imposed for most of the new duties.
However, the principle of equal pay is not new. It has been enshrined in European law since 1957, when it was enshrined in Article 119 of the EEC Treaty (now Art. 157 ZPHEW). In its 1976 judgment in Defrenne II, the Court of Justice recognised a twofold purpose: economic — to ensure that undertakings in States which have actually introduced equal pay are not at a competitive disadvantage compared to undertakings in States which have not yet eliminated pay discrimination — and social.
The novelty enshrined in the Equal Pay Act is that the law shifts the center of gravity from making the employee sue to the employer's duty to prove.
Important terms:
31. 07. 2026 Introduce a remuneration structure - for an employer that arose before 7. 6. 2026 (§ 18 para. 1). The deadline has already passed.
continuously Pre-contractual information, disclosure of criteria, responses to requests (2 months/30 days), annual information to employees (§ 4 to § 7).
07.06.2027 First remuneration report for at least 150 employees, for period 1. 8. — 31. 12. 2026 (§ 18 para. 3).
15. 04. per annum Remuneration report for at least 250 employees (§ 8 para. 2).
07.06.2031 First report for 100 - 149 employees, for 2030 (§ 18 para. 4).
Employers with fewer than 100 employees report may, but it does not have to (§ 8 para. 4.
Obligations that apply regardless of size
The size of the employer decides only on reporting, on the availability of criteria for increasing remuneration and on transitional periods.
The rest applies equally to a company with three thousand employees.
Remuneration structure (§ 3): The employer is obliged to put in place a remuneration structure which must make it possible to assess whether it is equal work or work of equal value. The criteria that the law decides to enshrine are complexity, responsibility, laboriousness, working conditions, other relevant factors, and soft skills. If employee representatives are employed by the employer, the criteria shall be met with them Agree(Article 3 (2)), whereas the mere classification of employees into categories is negotiates.
Recruitment (§ 4): The law introduces an obligation for the employer to publish a gender-neutral advertisement as well as the name of the position. The starting salary or its spread should be communicated to the jobseeker before the interview(the obligation is fulfilled if indicated in the advertisement), respectively before signing the employment contract. Prohibited require applicants to provide information about their current or previous employer's salary. The starting salary is determined according to the criteria of § 3, so it is a remuneration including additional components, not just the basic component of the salary.
Criteria without application (§ 5): The employer is obliged to make available to employees the criteria on the basis of which their remuneration, the level of remuneration and the increase in remuneration are determined. Criteria increasing the remuneration may not be made available by an employer with less than 50 employees.
Information on request (§ 6): When the employee exercise their right to provide informationthe employer has to determine the level of his remuneration, or the average level of remunerationDeadline 2 monthsto provide this information. If such an answer is considered by the employee to be inaccurate or incomplete, the employee shall have the right to request additional and reasoned explanations and details regarding such information. This is where the employer's deadline passes 30 daysfor replenishment. Once a yearEmployees should be informed of this right. Confidentiality clauses on own remuneration are invalid by law- regardless of when they were negotiated.
Reward = broad concept: The basic salary is also Remuneration from employment agreements carried out outside the employment relationship; an additional component is any other pecuniary or pecuniary performance, so that the inventory also includes benefits that, according to § 118 para. 2 of the Labor Code are not wages. In addition, the law works simultaneously with both a literal and an hourly level of remuneration - the first technical step is to verify that the system can generate it.
Reporting and the 5% rule
The remuneration report contains seven data including medians, quartile bands and differences by employee categories (§ 8 para. 1). It affects employers who employ at least 100 employees. Depending on the size, the frequency of reporting is also distinguished (100-249 employees, once every three years; 250+employees, annually). Employer reports after consultation with the representatives of the employees, if they work for him; posting on your own website is voluntary.
If the difference is proven at least 5% in any categoryThe employer is unjustified objective criteria, and does not remove within six monthsfrom the submission of the report to the Ministry, it must carry out a joint assessment of remuneration within two months (§ 9). Conditions are cumulative - to justify or eliminate - one is enough.
Data on differences by category are received by employees and their representatives without request. The justification must therefore be prepared in advance, not within the 30-day time limit for a reply.
Three things that hurt more than a fine
Burden of proof (§ 12): If the employer has violated § 4, § 5, § 6, § 8 or § 9, he must in the dispute to prove himself that there was no discrimination - even if the plaintiff does not state facts indicating discrimination. The exception applies only if the infringement was manifestly unintentional and at the same timeless serious, and both must be proven by the employer. Thus, administrative negligence changes the procedural position in the dispute.
Disclosure of data by the Ministry (Section 14 (1) (c)): The Ministry will publish the data from the reports in a way that allows comparisons between employers, sectors and regions, including the history of the previous four years. It is not up to the employer to decide whether the difference will be made public. For this, it is advisable, if the difference in remuneration appears, to prepare a communication explanation before submitting the first report.
Penalties: If the employer submits a report to the Ministry, the Ministry shall appoint him an additional period of at least 15 daysto comply with this obligation; its expiration in vain is followed by a fine from 4 000 to 8 000 euros, which is mandatory (§ 16). Other duties are supervised by the labour inspectorate and pursuant to Section 19 (1) (a) of Act No. 125/2006 Coll. z., which is entitled to impose a fine up to 100,000 euros. A fine can also be imposed to the head of staff or the statutory bodywho has wrongfully violated his duties.
What the state offers and what follows
The Ministry of Labor published methodology of systematic evaluation and classification of jobs as well as analytical tool. Their use is not mandatory- the employer can have its own system if it is objective, non-discriminatory and gender-neutral. However, the Ministry points out that the use of several different methodologies within a single organisation may constitute indirect discrimination. The Ministry provides technical assistance and training to employers with fewer than 250 employees (§ 14 para. 5).
Checklist
Determine the size range - the average registered number of employees for the previous calendar year (§ 2 para. 2).
Map all components of remuneration, including agreements and benefits.
Establish a remuneration structure and create categories of employees; criteria to agree, categories to negotiate.
Eliminate wage confidentiality clauses from contracts, payroll and special agreements.
Edit job postings, job titles and interview questions; remove previous salary question from templates
Prepare the data base: annual and hourly reward levels, medians, quartiles, breakdown by categories and specific record of increases in remuneration upon return from maternity, paternity and parental leave, nursing and care(Article 9 (3) (e)).
Maintain a separate purpose of the processing of personal data limited to the exercise of the right to equal remuneration (Article 10 (2)) and document the fulfillment of obligations - in view of §12, the documentation has evidential, not evidential, significance.