Directive 2023/970/EU · Compliance Matrix

The EU Pay Transparency
Directive, Article by Article.

Directive 2023/970/EU imposes 34 Articles of obligation on Member States and employers. This page walks every Article that creates an operational obligation on employers, and sets out exactly what Vareqa delivers, what it enables, and where an employer still needs to act outside the platform. Built for General Counsel review and mid-market procurement due diligence.

Directive
2023/970
Adopted 10 May 2023
Transposition deadline
7 Jun 2026
All 27 Member States
First reporting cycle
7 Jun 2027
Employers of 150+
Burden of proof
Reversed
For transparency breaches

How to read this matrix

Three coverage categories. No ambiguity.

Not every Article of the Directive is an operational obligation Vareqa can or should fulfil. Some describe national enforcement procedures. Some govern the legal process. Some establish definitions rather than duties. This matrix classifies every employer-facing obligation into one of three categories and tells you plainly which one applies.

Vareqa fulfils
Operational obligations Vareqa directly performs.

The platform produces the regulator-ready output. Where this badge appears, the employer's primary task is to review, approve, and publish. Articles 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10.

Vareqa enables
Vareqa provides the evidence, the employer exercises the defence.

The platform generates the audit trail, methodology documentation, and decision rationale that constitute the employer's defensive posture, but the employer must still engage legal counsel for the specific procedure. Articles 18, 20, 22, 23.

Out of scope
Outside Vareqa's software boundary.

The obligation sits with the Member State, the employer's legal counsel, or internal HR policy, not with a software platform. Articles 1–3 (scope and definitions), 11–17 (enforcement procedure), 24+ (transposition). Listed for completeness.

A note on precision

The Directive is most often cited in marketing with single-number Article references ("Article 4", "Article 9"). The Directive text itself is sub-structured: Article 4 has four paragraphs, Article 9 has ten. Where a specific paragraph creates the concrete obligation, we cite it directly (for example, Article 4(4) for the evaluation criteria, Article 9(1)(a)–(g) for the seven reporting indicators). This level of precision is what a General Counsel expects in a compliance review and what Vareqa's methodology is engineered to deliver against.

Chapter I
General Provisions
Scope, definitions, and the foundational obligation to maintain pay structures that permit equal-pay comparison.
Article 1 sets the Directive's objective — to ensure application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women, by establishing minimum requirements for pay transparency and enforcement. It does not impose any direct operational requirement on employers.
Article 2 defines the personal scope: the Directive applies to all undertakings in the public and private sector, and to all workers who have an employment contract or employment relationship as defined by law, collective agreement, or practice in each Member State, with reference to the case-law of the Court of Justice. This is a definitional provision.
Article 3 provides the definitions that govern interpretation throughout the Directive. Key definitions include: "pay" (ordinary basic wage plus any complementary or variable components); "pay level" (gross annual remuneration and the corresponding gross hourly remuneration); "work of equal value" (work that is of equal value on the basis of objective, gender-neutral criteria); and "category of workers" (workers performing the same work or work of equal value grouped on the basis of those criteria). These definitions are definitional, not operational employer obligations.
Article 4(4) requires Member States to ensure employers have available pay determination and pay setting systems that are based on objective, gender-neutral criteria. The Vareqa Role Evaluation Framework™ directly satisfies this obligation: it evaluates every role against eight transparent, gender-neutral compensable factors (Organisational Impact, Knowledge Depth, Problem Complexity, Decision Autonomy, People Leadership, Influence & Communication, Innovation Requirement, Working Environment). The criteria are published, auditable, and shareable with employees and regulators. Vareqa generates the written evidence of methodology that Article 4 requires an employer to be able to produce.
Chapter II · Articles 5 to 10
Pay Transparency
The operational core of the Directive. Six Articles creating concrete obligations before hiring, during employment, at annual reporting, and at the joint assessment trigger.
Article 5 requires employers to provide job applicants with information on the initial pay level or pay range for the position prior to the interview, or at the latest before the job offer is made. The information must be provided in writing. Employers are prohibited from asking candidates about their current or previous pay. Vareqa's Salary Range Publisher module generates the defensible pay range drawn directly from the grade structure, ready to include in job advertisements and applicant communications.
Article 6 requires employers to make accessible to their workers the criteria used for determining pay, pay levels, and pay progression. These criteria must be objective and gender-neutral. Vareqa enables this obligation: the REF™ methodology documentation, factor definitions, point values, and grade thresholds are all transparently documented and publishable. The employer must decide how and where to communicate them internally — Vareqa generates the content; the employer publishes it.
Article 7 grants every worker the right to request information on their individual pay level and on the average pay levels, broken down by sex, of workers doing the same work or work of equal value. The employer must respond within 60 calendar days in writing. Workers must be informed of this right at least annually. Vareqa's Employee Right-to-Information module generates the plain-language response in the employee's own language, drawn directly from the evaluation and pay-band data. The 60-day deadline is tracked in the platform.
Article 8 requires that all information shared under Articles 5, 6, and 7 must be made accessible to workers who have disabilities, in a format suitable to their particular needs, upon request. Vareqa outputs are structured data and plain-language text that can be delivered in accessible formats. The employer is responsible for ensuring the delivery channel meets accessibility standards (e.g. WCAG 2.1) — this is a publishing decision, not a platform limitation.
Article 9(1)(a)–(g) specifies seven mandatory pay-gap indicators: (a) the gender pay gap; (b) the gender pay gap in complementary or variable components; (c) the median gender pay gap; (d) the median gender pay gap in complementary or variable components; (e) the proportion of female and male workers receiving complementary or variable components; (f) the proportion of female and male workers in each quartile pay band; and (g) the gender pay gap between workers by categories of workers broken down by ordinary basic wage and complementary or variable components. Vareqa's Pay Gap Calculator and Gender Pay Gap Reporter module computes and packages all seven indicators for submission to the relevant Member State body.
Article 10 requires employers who have reported a pay difference of at least 5% in any category of workers that is not justified by objective, gender-neutral criteria, and who have not remedied that difference within six months of the reporting date, to carry out a joint pay assessment in cooperation with workers' representatives. Vareqa's Joint Pay Assessment module provides the structured analytical framework, identifies the affected categories, documents the gender-neutral justification (or absence of one), and produces the report that the Article requires to be communicated to workers, workers' representatives, and the competent authority.
Reporting thresholds and first-cycle dates

Article 9 reporting applies to employers of 100 or more workers, phased by size. These dates are set by the Directive and are not Member State discretion, although some Member States may accelerate. This is the schedule your compliance calendar must reflect.

Employer sizeFirst reporting cycleFrequency
250+ workersArticle 9(2)By 7 June 2027, reporting on calendar year 2026.Annual thereafter.
150 to 249 workersArticle 9(3)By 7 June 2027, reporting on calendar year 2026.Every three years.
100 to 149 workersArticle 9(4)By 7 June 2031, reporting on calendar year 2030.Every three years.
Under 100 workersArticle 9(5)Voluntary. Member States may legislate.Not mandated at Directive level.
Chapter III · Articles 14 to 23
Remedies and Enforcement
Where the teeth of the Directive live. Burden of proof, compensation, penalties, and retaliation protection. These Articles do not create platform-scale obligations, but Vareqa's evidence is what anchors the employer's defence.
Article 18 reverses the burden of proof in pay discrimination proceedings where the employer has failed to comply with any of the transparency obligations (Articles 5, 6, 7, 9, or 10). In those circumstances, the employer must demonstrate that no pay discrimination has occurred. Vareqa's full compliance with Articles 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10 means the employer enters any proceeding with the burden on the correct side. The Vareqa audit trail — every evaluation, every pay band, every right-to-information response — is the evidentiary record that supports the defence. Legal counsel must conduct the actual proceedings.
Article 20 requires Member States to prohibit any adverse treatment of workers, workers' representatives, or persons who assist in a complaint as a consequence of exercising or attempting to exercise their rights under the Directive. This is an HR policy and employment law obligation; it does not fall within the operational scope of a pay architecture platform.
Article 22 ensures that workers who have suffered pay discrimination can recover full compensation or reparation for the damage they have sustained, including back pay and associated bonuses or payments in kind, compensation for lost opportunities, non-material damage, and interest on arrears. No upper limit may be applied. Vareqa enables this Article by providing the pay-band and evaluation evidence that allows the employer (and, where required, the court) to reconstruct what the correct pay level should have been.
Article 23 requires Member States to lay down effective, proportionate, and dissuasive penalties, including fines, for infringements of national provisions adopted pursuant to the Directive. For repeated infringements, Member States may include exclusion from public procurement and public funding. The specific penalty regime is a Member State legislative matter; Vareqa compliance with Articles 4–10 is the mechanism by which an employer avoids exposure to penalties.

Completeness

What Vareqa does not claim to cover

The Directive has 34 Articles. The matrix above covers the Articles that create operational obligations on employers and where Vareqa is relevant. The following Articles sit outside Vareqa's software boundary, by design, and are flagged here so that a General Counsel reviewing this matrix can confirm the scope is honest.

Article 11 requires that any personal data processed for the purposes of implementing Articles 7, 9, and 10 are processed in accordance with GDPR (Regulation 2016/679) and must not be used for any purpose other than applying the principle of equal pay. This is a GDPR compliance and data governance obligation for the employer's legal and DPO function, not a feature of a job evaluation and pay architecture platform.
Article 12 obliges Member States to encourage social partners to address, within their sphere of competence, the pay gap between female and male workers and to promote equal pay through collective bargaining at the appropriate levels. This creates no direct employer obligation; the obligation falls on Member States.
Articles 13–17 cover the procedural framework for enforcement: Article 13 (procedures on behalf of workers, including by associations and equality bodies); Article 14 (the role of equality bodies in providing assistance); Article 15 (the right of workers' representatives to act on behalf of workers); Article 16 (defence of rights); Article 17 (the right of workers to compensation before a national court). All of these are legal and procedural requirements for national implementation; none creates a direct operational obligation on employers that a software platform could address.
Article 19 requires Member States to lay down rules on limitation periods applicable to proceedings for the exercise of the rights conferred by the Directive. The limitation period may not begin before the claimant knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, of the infringement. No operational employer obligation arises from this Article.
Article 21 provides that national courts or competent authorities may, in accordance with national law, dispense an unsuccessful claimant from paying the costs if they were not incurred unnecessarily and the claimant had reasonable grounds for bringing the proceedings. This is a procedural rule addressed to national courts.
Articles 24–34 are the closing and horizontal provisions of the Directive: Article 24 (link to public procurement — employers convicted of pay discrimination may be excluded from public contracts and subsidies); Article 25 (non-regression clause); Article 26 (monitoring bodies); Article 27 (statistics and data); Article 28 (reporting to the Commission); Article 29 (standard of protection); Article 30 (dissemination of information); Article 31 (dialogue with non-governmental organisations); Article 32 (implementation clause); Article 33 (transposition — the 7 June 2026 deadline); Article 34 (entry into force). These create obligations for Member States, not operational obligations for employers.

The Compliance Risk Audit

Find out which Articles you are already exposed on.

A 30-minute structured audit with a Vareqa specialist. Walks your organisation through each of the operational Articles above and identifies specific exposure points. No platform demo unless you ask for one. Delivered by the same methodology that produces the GC briefing pack.