After decades of advocacy by women’s right’s movements across Europe, a landmark moment arrived on 7 June 2026: the EU Pay Transparency Directive entered into force, requiring all Member States to transpose binding new pay transparency and gender pay gap reporting obligations into national law. The Netherlands has not met this deadline - and that failure is a political choice.
Gender Concerns International calls on the Dutch government to accelerate implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive without further delay and to ensure that national legislation goes beyond the Directive's minimum requirements. We urge national legislation that goes beyond the Directive’s minimum requirements, with particular attention to migrant and undocumented women, who are disproportionately concentrated in precarious, informal, and low-paid work that existing enforcement mechanisms frequently fail to reach. A Directive that does not reach the most vulnerable women in the labour market is a Directive that has only done half its job.
What the Directive requires
For the first time in European legal history, workers have a binding right to know what their colleagues earn and employers who cannot justify a gender pay gap of 5% or more are required to act. Core obligations include: a ban on salary history questions; pay transparency in job vacancies; employees' right to request pay information subdivided by gender; and mandatory pay gap reporting for employers with 100 or more staff. In cases of pay discrimination, the burden of proof now shifts to the employer. This is a significant and long-overdue reversal – one that women’s organisations have long demanded.
Why this matters beyond the workplace
In 2024, the gender pay gap in the EU remained around 13%. This figure represents not just a number but a structural injustice. Women are effectively working weeks of unpaid labour every year relative to their male counterparts. For migrant women, women of colour, and women with disabilities, the gap is compounded by intersecting disadvantages that the Directive explicitly acknowledges for the first time in EU legislation.
The Netherlands is close, but not there
In September 2025, the Dutch government announced that it would not meet the June 2026 deadline, citing the need for more time to reduce the administrative burden on employers. The European Commission responded in December 2025 that the deadline was firm and that delays could lead to infringement proceedings.
What needs to happen
The Dutch delay is a political signal. When a government repeatedly prioritises reducing the administrative burden on employers over closing the gender pay gap, it reveals where its priorities lie. The Directive is not complex. It is clear. What has been lacking is the political will to implement it on time.
Equal pay is not a privilege. It is a right. The Netherlands must act accordingly.
Gender Concerns International comtinues to monitor and advocate for the full and timely implementation of the EU Pay Transparency Directive in the Netherlands.