Purpose
This is a mandate that cannot wait. Germany missed the implementation deadline of Directive (EU) 2023/970 on 07.06.2026; the obligations of the Directive nevertheless apply from 08.06.2026. For public employers this means direct applicability, for private employers interpretation of the EntgTranspG in conformity with the Directive and considerable pressure from works councils and the public — and for all employers with 150 or more employees, that the data collection for the first report now must be running, because it already covers calendar year 2026.
Inputs
- Number of employees (thresholds 100 / 150 / 250) and legal form: private or public employer / other state body
- Existing pay structure: collective agreement coverage, pay groups, job architecture, evaluation system
- Does a documented job evaluation exist for determining "work of equal value"? (The long runner of the project)
- Existing pay data by gender: median, arithmetic mean, variable components, quartiles
- Previous requests for information under §§ 10 et seq. EntgTranspG and their responses
- Job advertisement practice: Are pay ranges stated? Is previous salary asked about?
- Works council present? (§ 13 EntgTranspG in conjunction with § 80(1) No. 2a BetrVG)
Sub-agent architecture
- Researcher (
../../agents/researcher.md) provides EntgTranspG provisions with URL, the text of Directive (EU) 2023/970 and the current status of the German legislative process. - Drafter (
../../agents/drafter.md) creates the response to the request for information, the gap analysis structure or the implementation roadmap. - Reviewer (
../../agents/reviewer.md) checks threshold classification, data protection, deadlines and the separation between current and future law.
Process
1. Current German law: the right to information (§ 10 EntgTranspG)
Employees have a right to information in accordance with §§ 11 to 16 EntgTranspG for the purpose of reviewing the requirement of pay equality. To this end they must name in a reasonable manner an equal or equivalent activity (comparison activity) and can request information on the average gross monthly pay as well as on up to two individual pay components. The request is made in text form; a repetition before the expiry of two years is possible only if the conditions have changed materially (§ 10(2) EntgTranspG).
Content of the information (§ 11 EntgTranspG): criteria and procedure of pay determination as well as the comparison pay as statistical median of the average monthly gross pay of the respective other sex. For employers bound by collective agreements and applying collective agreements, reference to the collective agreement provision is sufficient for the criteria.
Two limitations of current law (Section 12 EntgTranspG) — both points that fall away under the Directive:
- The claim exists only in establishments with generally more than 200 employees at the same employer (Section 12(1) EntgTranspG).
- The comparison pay is not to be stated, if the comparison activity is performed by fewer than six employees of the respective other sex (Section 12(3) sentence 2 EntgTranspG). In practice, this six-person threshold is the reason why a significant proportion of all requests for information ends without a usable result.
Supplementary: Section 13 EntgTranspG (tasks and rights of the works council, right of the works committee to inspect the gross pay lists), Section 14 EntgTranspG (procedure for employers bound by collective agreements), Section 15 EntgTranspG (procedure for employers not bound by collective agreements), Sections 17 et seq. (voluntary company review procedure), Section 21 EntgTranspG and Section 22 EntgTranspG (report on equality and pay equity for employers required to prepare a management report from 500 employees).
2. Directive (EU) 2023/970 — status and timeline
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 07.06.2026 | Deadline for transposition of the Directive — missed by Germany |
| 08.06.2026 | Obligations under the Directive apply under Union law, irrespective of the status of German transposition |
| 07.06.2027 | First gender pay gap report for employers from 150 employees — reporting covers calendar year 2026 |
Status of the German procedure [unverifiziert – prüfen]: The BMBFSFJ draft bill announced for January 2026 has to date (as of this skill: 21.07.2026) not been published. The Ministry now aims for entry into force at the beginning of 2027 ; according to this, reporting obligations and the new rights to information are to become applicable only from June 2028 . This timeline is political and not legally binding — it must be verified against the current status on the BMBFSFJ and Bundestag websites before any consultation.
3. The decisive fork in the road: public or private employer
Direct vertical effect. An individual may rely directly on a Directive that has not been transposed in time against the state insofar as its provisions are unconditional and sufficiently precise in content. The addressee here is the state in a broad, functional sense: territorial authorities, institutions and corporations under public law, but also entities organised under private law that perform a task in the public interest under state supervision and are endowed with special rights for that purpose (settled case law of the ECJ on the direct effect of directives vis-à-vis state bodies, cases Marshall and Foster [unverifiziert – prüfen]).
a practical point that appears in hardly any client presentation: Public employers and other state bodies are therefore from 08.06.2026 bound directly by the sufficiently specific requirements of the directive bound directly — in particular the obligation to state pay in job advertisements, the prohibition on asking about pay history and the extended right to information. Municipal clinics, transport and utility companies in private legal form, savings banks, public-law broadcasting corporations and universities must be examined separately here.
Private employers are subject to no direct effect — there is no horizontal direct effect between private parties. They are nevertheless not unaffected:
- Directive-compliant interpretation of the existing EntgTranspG and of § 3(1) AGG within the scope of the interpretive discretion available;
- Art. 157 TFEU (equal pay) applies directly also between private parties and already today supports the substantive equal treatment claim;
- State liability under the Francovichprinciples against the Federal Republic of Germany for damage resulting from the delayed transposition
[unverifiziert – prüfen]; - pressure under works constitution law and reputational pressure from 08.06.2026.
4. Substantive obligations of the directive
Before hiring:
- Applicants receive information on the entry-level pay or its range — in the advertisement or before the job interview.
- Prohibition on asking about pay history: The employer may not ask applicants about their previous or current pay. This is the change that takes effect most quickly in operational terms; application forms, recruiting software and interview guides must be adjusted accordingly.
- Non-discriminatory job titles and selection procedures.
During the ongoing employment relationship:
- Right to information without a threshold: Employees may request their individual pay level and the average pay broken down by gender for groups performing the same or equivalent work — irrespective of the size of the employer and without the six-person threshold of § 12(3) EntgTranspG. The employer provides information annually on the existence of this right.
- Transparency of pay determination: Criteria for pay, pay levels and pay development must be objective, gender-neutral and accessible.
- Prohibition of confidentiality clauses regarding one's own pay.
Reporting obligations (gender pay gap reporting), staggered according to number of employees:
| Employees | First report | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| from 250 | 07.06.2027 (for 2026) | annually |
| 150 – 249 | 07.06.2027 (for 2026) | every three years |
| 100 – 149 | 07.06.2031 | every three years |
| under 100 | no obligation | — |
Report contents: overall gender pay gap, for variable components, median, share of genders per quartile as well as the gap per category of employees with equal or equivalent work.
Joint pay assessment: If the report shows a pay gap in a category of at least 5%, which the employer cannot justify by objective, gender-neutral criteria, and it is not remedied within six months, a pay assessment must be carried out jointly with the employee representatives — with analysis, justification and remedial measures.
Enforcement: Reversal of the burden of proof to the detriment of the employer, right to full compensation including back pay, sanctions by the Member States, right of associations and employee representatives to bring legal action.
5. The long runner: "equivalent work" and the job architecture
All reporting and assessment obligations presuppose that the employer can classify its activities into categories of equal and equivalent work . The directive requires objective, gender-neutral criteria for this, at least: qualification, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
This is not a reporting project but an organizational project with a typical lead time of six to twelve months: record job profiles, weight criteria, evaluate positions, validate results, coordinate with the works council and collective bargaining partners. Anyone who starts only after the German implementation act is available can no longer prepare the report for 2026 on a reliable basis — the data can then no longer be collected retroactively.
Roadmap from today:
Sofort Job-Architektur / Bewertungssystem aufsetzen; Entgeltdaten
2026 vollständig und geschlechtsdifferenziert erfassen
Sofort Frage nach der Entgelthistorie aus Formularen, ATS und
Interviewleitfäden entfernen
Sofort Entgeltspannen in Ausschreibungen einführen (Pflicht für
staatliche Stellen ab 08.06.2026; für private Arbeitgeber
Vorbereitung und Marktstandard)
Q3–Q4 2026 Erste Gap-Analyse als Probelauf; Kategorien validieren;
Rechtfertigungsgründe je Kategorie dokumentieren
Q1 2027 Bericht für 2026 erstellen; bei Gefälle ≥ 5 % die
Sechsmonatsfrist zur Abhilfe einplanen
07.06.2027 Berichtsstichtag (≥ 150 Beschäftigte)
laufend Umsetzungsgesetz verfolgen; Fristen nachziehen
Sources
Statute
- § 10 EntgTranspG, § 11 EntgTranspG, § 12 EntgTranspG, § 13 EntgTranspG, § 14 EntgTranspG, § 15 EntgTranspG, § 21 EntgTranspG, § 22 EntgTranspG
- § 1 AGG, § 3 AGG, § 7 AGG, § 15 AGG, § 22 AGG
- § 80 BetrVG, § 99 BetrVG
- Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10.05.2023 on strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women for equal or equivalent work through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms (EUR-Lex)
- Art. 157 TFEU; Directive 2006/54/EC
Commentaries
- Franzen, in: ErfK, 24th ed. 2024, EntgTranspG marginal no. 1 et seq.
- Bauer / Romero, EntgTranspG, Commentary, 2nd ed. 2021
- Thüsing, in: MüKoBGB, 9th ed. 2023, § 3 AGG marginal no. 1 et seq. (indirect pay discrimination)
Case law
- settled case law of the ECJ on the direct effect of unimplemented directives vis-à-vis state bodies (Cases Marshall and Foster)
[unverifiziert – prüfen] - settled case law of the ECJ on state liability in the event of late implementation of directives (Case Francovich)
[unverifiziert – prüfen] - settled case law of the BAG on §§ 10 et seq. EntgTranspG (information on the median as an indication within the meaning of § 22 AGG)
[unverifiziert – prüfen] - ECJ case law on Art. 157 TFEU and on the direct applicability of the principle of equal pay also between private parties
[unverifiziert – prüfen]
The German implementation timetable and the status of the draft bill by the ministry must be verified against the publications of the BMBFSFJ and the Bundestag before any client advice; the dates of the national procedure mentioned here are marked with
[unverifiziert – prüfen]. The directive text itself has been verified via EUR-Lex.
Output format
ENTGELTTRANSPARENZ — <Mandat-ID> — <Datum>
VERTRAULICH — MANDATSGEHEIMNIS — § 43a Abs. 2 BRAO
⚠️ RECHTSLAGE IM ÜBERGANG
Umsetzungsfrist RL (EU) 2023/970: 07.06.2026 — versäumt
Unionsrechtliche Wirkung ab: 08.06.2026
Deutsches Umsetzungsgesetz: ausstehend [unverifiziert – prüfen]
I. Arbeitgeberstatus [privat / öffentlich / staatliche
Stelle im funktionalen Sinn]
Unmittelbare Wirkung: [🔴 ja, ab 08.06.2026 / nein]
II. Beschäftigtenzahl <N> Schwellen: 100 / 150 / 250
Berichtspflicht: [keine / ab 07.06.2027 / ab 07.06.2031]
Turnus: [jährlich / dreijährlich]
III. Geltendes Recht EntgTranspG
§ 12 Abs. 1 (> 200 Beschäftigte): [erfüllt / nicht erfüllt]
Offene Auskunftsverlangen: <N>
Sechs-Personen-Schwelle § 12 III 2: [greift / greift nicht]
IV. Job-Architektur / gleichwertige Arbeit
Bewertungssystem vorhanden: [🟢 / 🔴 — Projektstart erforderlich]
Kriterien: Qualifikation, Belastung,
Verantwortung, Arbeitsbedingungen
V. Datenlage 2026 [🟢 vollständig / 🔴 Lücken: <…>]
VI. Gap-Analyse (Probelauf)
Gesamtgefälle: <%>
Median: <%>
Variable Bestandteile: <%>
Kategorien mit Gefälle ≥ 5 %: <Liste>
Rechtfertigung dokumentiert: [🟢 / 🔴]
Sechsmonatsfrist zur Abhilfe: <Datum> → sonst gemeinsame
Entgeltbewertung
VII. Recruiting-Prozess
Entgeltspanne in Ausschreibung:[🟢 / 🔴]
Frage nach Entgelthistorie: [🔴 noch vorhanden in <System> /
entfernt am <Datum>]
Verschwiegenheitsklauseln: [🔴 vorhanden / entfernt]
VIII. Betriebsrat § 13 EntgTranspG [eingebunden / nicht eingebunden]
IX. Risiko [🟢 / 🟡 / 🔴]
Beweislastumkehr, Nachzahlungs- und Entschädigungsrisiko
Offene Verifizierungen:
- Stand des Referentenentwurfs BMBFSFJ prüfen
Empfehlung / Roadmap: <…>
Risks / typical mistakes
- Waited for the German implementation act — the first report covers calendar year 2026 ; anyone who begins data collection in 2027 can no longer prepare it on a reliable basis.
- Overlooked direct effect vis-à-vis state bodies — municipal companies, savings banks, hospitals and universities in private legal form must be examined separately; the legal form alone is not decisive.
- Assumed horizontal direct effect — it does not exist vis-à-vis private employers; there the claim is based on Art. 157 TFEU, the AGG and interpretation in conformity with the directive.
- Continued the six-person threshold of § 12(3) sentence 2 EntgTranspG — it ceases to apply under the directive; the information must then be provided irrespective of the size of the comparison group and without a threshold for the employer.
- Left the question about pay history in the application process — it is prohibited under the directive and is the easiest violation to overlook in application forms and recruiting systems.
- Underestimated job architecture — determining "work of equal value" is the long runner of the project, not the reporting.
- Misunderstood the 5% threshold as a de minimis limit — in the absence of justification and failure to remedy within six months, it triggers the joint pay assessment.
- Did not factor in the reversal of the burden of proof — the employer must keep the justification for each category documented ; subsequent explanations do not suffice.
- Presented the German timetable as settled — entry into force in early 2027 and application of the reporting obligations from June 2028 are planning stages of the ministry, not applicable law.