On June 7, Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency will come into force. But if you’re already running late, don’t worry just yet—its rollout is gradual until June 2031, depending on your company’s headcount.
As recruiting specialists, in this article we’ll focus mainly on the most relevant changes affecting talent attraction.
One of the changes with the biggest impact—at least in Spain—is that the regulation states that any company operating in the EU will be required to include the salary or salary range in their job offers.
That said, where there’s a law, there’s often a workaround. As currently worded, the regulation says this information must be provided by the company before the job interview, which doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be included in the job ad itself.
Every company is different, but we always recommend—regardless of any legal requirement—that job offers include at least a clear salary range.
It’s a policy we strictly apply on our own job portal. And we do it because we believe it’s the best way not to waste anyone’s time—ours included.
Let’s be honest: if someone isn’t willing to accept what we have to offer, there’s nothing better than knowing that as early as possible.
Imagine going through a full hiring process, with all its stages and assessments, only for it to fall through over something that was clear from the start.
From experience, we know there’s almost always room for negotiation on both sides—companies and candidates alike. But having a reference point upfront helps enormously.
So if it’s so beneficial, why isn’t everyone doing it already?
Well, there are a couple of main hypotheses:
The first is that being the first to “show your cards” in a negotiation puts you at a disadvantage. We don’t really buy that—and we’ve gone into detail on this in another article.
The second has to do with the lack of a well-defined internal compensation policy within companies. Because if you publish a job offer with a higher salary than what someone already doing the same role in your organization earns, that becomes public—and a major issue.
Here’s where the law does seem to take a step in the right direction: it requires objective criteria for setting salaries, and those criteria must be accessible to all employees.
This means companies will need clearly defined criteria for each level, along with salary ranges associated with each of them.
So if this regulation gives companies a push to build tools that help them manage their HR policies more effectively, then it’s more than welcome.
That said, it remains to be seen how strict enforcement will be. It brings to mind the recent case of working hours tracking.
While the intention behind it was solid—prevent excessive unpaid overtime and ensure proper compensation when it occurs—it feels like, on the one hand, it has added another layer of irrelevant bureaucracy, and on the other, enforcement hasn’t exactly been rigorous.
There’s little point in implementing policies—good or bad—if there’s no follow-through to ensure compliance. And realistically, making sure every company in a country complies with such a complex regulation is a monumental task.
Getting into more concrete implications: once the new regulation is in force, the classic question “How much are you currently earning?” will no longer be allowed.
While we firmly believe that anyone job hunting should have a well-prepared answer to avoid putting themselves at a negotiating disadvantage, banning this question could help protect the more vulnerable side of the negotiation.
In any case, to wrap things up, it’s true that in Spain, salary is still something of a taboo subject culturally.
In almost any context, directly asking someone how much they earn is seen as impolite.
So opening the windows and letting some fresh air in doesn’t sound like a bad idea.
If compensation is fair—based on merit and aligned with the market—there should be no issue in sharing it or knowing what others earn. Maybe, little by little, whether driven by regulation or not, this mindset will evolve, and salary secrecy will finally become a thing of the past.