Equal pay: green light for the decree on pay equality and wage transparency (People are People, 16 March 2026 – Claudia Cerbone, Martina De Angeli)

Claudia Cerbone and Martina De Angeli, professionals at the De Luca & Partners firm, author this article dedicated to the draft legislative decree approved last February 5 by the Council of Ministers, which places Italy among the first countries in the European Union to have implemented Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency.

Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency, adopted on May 10, 2023, was created with a very clear objective: to make the principle of equal pay between men and women for the same work or work of equal value truly enforceable. It does not merely reaffirm a principle already existing in European law, but introduces concrete tools to uncover potential pay disparities and make it easier for workers to assert their rights.

The core of the Directive is transparency: more available information, greater visibility into the criteria used to determine pay, and, consequently, more tools for workers to identify unjustified differences. In this sense, the Directive represents a real turning point, as it transforms a principle that has so far remained largely theoretical into a concrete and operational obligation. Employers are in fact required to ensure a much higher level of clarity and traceability in the mechanisms that determine salaries, job classifications, and career progression.

This is complemented by a significantly more robust system of monitoring and enforcement of the new rules. In the event of disputes, for example, a reversal of the burden of proof may apply: if the employer has failed to comply with the transparency obligations set out in the Directive, it will be up to the employer to prove that no pay discrimination has occurred.

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