Transparency of remuneration within the EU: Slovakia (and Czech Republic)

JUDr. Nataša Randlová, Ph.D. and Mgr. Bc. Lucie Krejčí – Randl Partners law firm from the Czech Republic
In cooperation with Dušan Nitschneider from the Slovak law firm NITSCHNEIDER & PARTNERS, advokátska kancelária, s. r. o., cooperating with the international alliance Ius Laboris

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Current status of the transposition of the Directive in Slovakia
The Slovak transposition proposal recently passed the inter-ministerial consultation process. On 7 January 2026, the government officially submitted it to the Slovak parliament, where it has already passed its first reading.

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Definition of remuneration
The Slovak draft law redefines the term "remuneration"; in its introduction, which includes not only basic wages, salaries or remuneration from an agreement, but also additional components of remuneration, i.e. other monetary or non-monetary benefits that an employee receives from their employer in connection with their employment. In simple terms, the term remuneration includes everything that an employer provides to an employee in connection with the performance of work (all types of performance-related remuneration) and with employment as such (e.g. transport allowance, stabilisation allowance etc.). According to the explanatory memorandum of the draft law, remuneration includes, for example, various forms of bonuses, overtime pay, travel allowances, housing and meal allowances, and allowances for participation in professional training.

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Employer obligations when recruiting employees
According to the Slovak draft law, employers must provide job applicants with timely and transparent information about the starting remuneration or its range for a given position. This obligation is considered to be fulfilled if the starting salary is published in the advertisement. Although this amendment is based on a European directive, the obligation to state the salary in the advertisement has been in force in the Slovak legal system since 2018. However, employers will now have to link the remuneration offered to gender-neutral criteria, i.e. these criteria must be established before the relevant offer is published. The proposal now prohibits asking candidates about their current or previous remuneration.
Given that starting salaries in Slovakia have traditionally been determined with regard to remuneration in previous employment, it is expected that the planned legislation will encourage the creation of separate remuneration systems for individual employers.

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Prohibition of confidentiality regarding remuneration

It is now also envisaged that employers will not be able to prevent employees from disclosing the amount of their remuneration, including remuneration for the calendar year, to other persons. In this respect, the Slovak legislation follows on from the previous legislation in force since 2019 and also goes beyond the scope of the Czech ban effective from 1 June 2025, which explicitly applies only to wages, salaries and remuneration under an agreement, i.e. always to remuneration provided for work. In contrast, the Slovak draft law, in accordance with the directive, refers to remuneration, which is defined more broadly. It is likely that there will be a shift in the future and that Czech legislation will also be harmonised with the directive. Employees will therefore be entitled to disclose information without restriction, including information about benefits provided by the employer or, for example, severance pay paid upon termination of employment. Any provisions in the contract that would oblige employees to maintain confidentiality about their remuneration are invalid under the Slovak draft law.

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Transparency of salaries within the employer
Employers will be required to adopt a remuneration system based on objective, gender- neutral criteria that prevent direct and indirect discrimination. These criteria should include complexity, responsibility, effort, working conditions and other factors relevant to the specific job or position, taking into account soft skills. Compared to the current situation, employers in Slovakia will take greater account of soft skills and qualities such as reliability, responsibility, independence, flexibility, argumentation skills, ability to work in a team, etc., in addition to education and qualifications. These criteria are important not only for comparing employees of different genders, but also for employees of the same gender, who are also entitled to equal pay for work of equal value.

Employers will be required to agree on these criteria with employee representatives and subsequently make them available to employees. Employers with fewer than 50 employees will not be required to create and provide information on criteria for remuneration progression, i.e. for salary increases. However, even these smaller employers will be
required to provide employees with information on existing remuneration levels and the criteria used to arrive at these levels (see above). The Slovak Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family promises to develop a methodology for employers that would make it easier to compare the value of work in accordance with objective and gender-neutral criteria. However, employers will have the option of creating their own procedure, e.g. freely using any internationally recognised methodology that best suits their conditions and needs and that respects the right to equal pay under Slovak law. Employers will also be required to provide employees, upon request, with information on the average remuneration by gender in their category (i.e. in the category of employees performing the same work or work of the same value as the employee in question). However, if an employee is able to deduce information about the specific remuneration of another employee from the information provided, the employer will not be obliged to provide this
information to the employee (but it will still be provided to employee representatives).

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Reports sent to administrative authorities
The Slovak draft law essentially adopts the reporting obligation under the Directive. The changes are more technical in nature, or rather concern the timing of the reporting obligation. Employers with 100-149 employees will be required to submit their first report on pay differences by June 7, 2031, and subsequently once every three years by April 15, always for the previous calendar year only.

Employers with 150 or more employees will be required to submit their first report on pay differences by June 7, 2027, and thereafter employers with 150-249 employees every three years by April 15, always covering the previous calendar year, and employers with 250 and more employees annually by April 15. However, the smallest employers with fewer than 100 employees will not be required to submit reports on pay differences unless they wish to do so voluntarily. Employers who fail to comply with their obligation to report on pay differences will be given a deadline by the Ministry of Labour to comply with this obligation, which must not be less than 15 days. If the employer fails to comply with its obligation even within the set deadline, it may be fined up to EUR 4,000. This fine may be imposed within two years from the date of the employer breach of its obligation. When imposing a fine, the Ministry of Labour will take into
account, in particular, the seriousness, duration, consequences, circumstances and repetition of the related breach.
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Role of employee representatives
According to the Slovak draft law, employee representatives will play an important role in the
area of equal pay at several levels:
- employers will be required to agree with employee representatives on the criteria for determining pay levels for work of equal value;
- employees will be able to request information about their remuneration or the average remuneration of men and women in their category through employee representatives;
- employee representatives will have the right to access the remuneration methodologies used by the employer or will be able to request additional explanations of the information provided;
- employee representatives will play a key role in the so-called joint assessment.
A joint assessment will be carried out when the differences between the average remuneration of men and women in a category according to the pay gap report exceed 5%, cannot be explained by gender-neutral criteria, and cannot be eliminated within 6 months. The aim of the joint assessment will be to identify and eliminate differences in pay between
men and women in cooperation with employee representatives. The employer will be obliged to carry out the joint assessment within two months of the expiry of the six-month period granted by law to eliminate the difference in average remuneration, with the six-month period beginning on the date of submission of the pay gap report.
The structure of the joint assessment will mirror the requirements of the directive, i.e. the draft law does not impose any additional obligations. If there are no employee representatives at an employer, the employer will carry out the joint
assessment itself, according to the Slovak proposal. In such a case, the planned Slovak transposition does not provide for the mandatory election or appointment of employee representatives.

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Single source
In accordance with the Directive, an employee may also request a remedy for unequal treatment in relation to employees performing the same work or work of equal value for another employer if both employers have a so-called single source of remuneration, i.e. if they have the same (centrally set) remuneration conditions. Typically, this will be companies within the same business group. Employees will even be able to compare themselves to a hypothetical comparable employee" if a direct comparison is not possible because there is no person of the opposite sex performing the same or equivalent work. A hypothetical comparison can be made, for example, using statistical data, i.e. data from official statistical surveys, salary surveys, data from publicly available registers or other objective data that allow for a comparison of remuneration.

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Conclusion
In connection with the Directive, Slovak employers should now take the following steps (in the order listed):
- Map the situation in their company with regard to remuneration; find out not only about the salary of individual job positions and the employees who work in them, but also how you have set the rules and what criteria you take into account in relation to all components of remuneration – i.e. review various guidelines or internal regulations concerning benefits and other payments;
- Introduce a remuneration system that allows positions to be compared according to objective, gender-neutral criteria (skills, effort, responsibility, working conditions, etc.), i.e. define how you evaluate work of equal value, including how soft skills such as communication and social skills are taken into account;
- Prepare for the obligation to publish the pay range according to this remuneration system for a given position in job advertisements, if you do not already do so;
- Start regularly analysing differences in pay between men and women by categories of work of equal value.
- Prepare for these issues to be raised, especially by employee representatives.

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Nataša Randlová

Lawyer/Partner
Tel: +420 222 755 311
randlova@randls.com
Nataša Randlová is one of the founding partners as well as head of the employment law team at Randl Partners. She has been recognized for the thirteen consecutive years in the renowned European guide Chambers Europe as a "Star Individual:; i.e., a personality with an exceptional reputation in her field. Multiple other global rankings, such as Legal 500, Practical Law Company, Best Lawyers, and Who's Who Legal, have repeatedly recognized
Nataša Randlová as a legal expert in the field of employment law. Nataša focuses mainly on collective bargaining, transfer of rights and obligations arising from employment relations, temporary assignment of employees, termination of employment, reorganisation, posting of employees, employee remuneration and other HR-related issues. Nataša also provides her services as an official mediator for collective bargaining disputes registered in the list of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and provides a range of practical training courses and workshops in the field of employment law.

Lucie Krejčí

Lawyer/ Associate
Tel: +420 222 755 311
Krejci@randls.com
Lucie is an associate at Randl Partners law firm and has been practicing employment law for 6 years. She specializes mainly on collective bargaining and other obligations towards trade unions, European Works Council, termination of employment and employee remuneration. She provides practical training courses on these issues including lectures on fulfilling obligations in the area of equal pay, or training on how to cooperate with trade unions and what to do when such a cooperation fails. She is also a frequent contributor of employment law articles to publications for lawyers and HR professionals.