FranceEntreprendre Service Public
France tables pay-transparency bill for employers
Pay-transparency transposition bill presented on 10 September: pay ranges in hiring, past-pay questions banned, reinforced equality index for 50+ employers — still before Parliament.
By Taxxa AI OyPublished 10 September 2026
The bill transposing the EU pay-transparency directive of 10 May 2023 into French lawService Public was presented in the Council of Ministers on 10 September 2026
Service Public and must now be examined by the Senate and the National Assembly
Service Public. As a bill, its measures are proposals, not enacted duties
Service Public: employers face no new obligations until the text is adopted
Service Public.
The bill would shift the existing framework towards greater pay transparency and employer responsibility for identifying, justifying and correcting pay gaps between women and men. From the recruitment stage, employers would have to inform job applicants of the proposed pay or pay rangeService Public, and could no longer ask about applicants' current or past pay
Service Public. Employees in post would gain a reinforced right to information about their own pay
Service Public and about average pay levels within their job category — without access to colleagues' individual pay — so they can situate their pay against the category average. Any clause barring an employee from disclosing information about their own pay would be prohibited
Service Public.
Companies with at least 50 employees would have to measure and report indicators of pay gaps between women and menService Public, with duties and deadlines varying by headcount — notably between companies with 50 to 99 employees and those with at least 100. The current Index de l'égalité professionnelle, the annual gender-equality score French employers already publish
Service Public, would be reinforced
Service Public: a new indicator would measure pay gaps between employees performing equal work or work of equal value
Service Public. The first six indicators would be automatically pre-calculated from déclaration sociale nominative (DSN) data
Service Public. For employers, the practical consequence is preparation rather than immediate compliance: hiring documentation would need to carry proposed pay or a range, interview scripts would need to drop current- and past-pay questions, pay-secrecy clauses would need removal from contracts and policies, and HR systems would need job-category average-pay data ready for employee information requests.
Legal basis: Directive (EU) 2023/970 of 10 May 2023 and the bill presented in the Council of Ministers on 10 September 2026, as reported by entreprendre.service-public.fr A19060.
Employers should track the bill's parliamentary progress and prepare hiring documentation, interview scripts and pay-data systems for the proposed transparency duties.