The EU Pay Transparency Rules Are Here: How to Handle the Salary Question

For years, the salary question had one script. The recruiter asks what you earn now, you give a number, and the negotiation starts from there. That script is being rewritten across the European Union.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970) had to be written into national law by 7 June 2026. The exact rules differ from country to country, because each member state implements them slightly differently. But the direction is the same: pay is moving out of the shadows and into the job advert, the interview, and the contract.

What actually changes in the interview room

Two changes matter most if you are job hunting right now.

First, employers have to tell applicants about the starting pay or a pay range before the interview. The range has to be based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, not on what they think you will accept. Some countries are stricter than others about how early and how specific this has to be, so always check your local rules.

Second, employers can no longer ask you what you currently earn or earned in previous jobs. If a recruiter asks anyway, you are not obliged to answer.

There is a third change that gets less attention: clauses that forbid employees from discussing their pay are now void. You can talk about your salary with colleagues, and your employer cannot punish you for it.

How to answer the salary question now

So what do you say when the question still comes?

Start with the range in the advert. If it is there, you have something concrete to work with. "I saw the range is 3,200 to 3,800 before tax. Based on my experience with X and Y, I would be looking at the upper part of that." That is a real conversation, not a guessing game.

If there is no range, ask for one before you name a number. Something like: "Could you share the budgeted range for this role? I want to make sure we are in the same ballpark before we go further." A decent employer will answer. A vague answer is information too.

If they ask about your current salary, you can politely redirect. "I would rather focus on what this role is worth and what the range is. My current package reflects a different job." Or, if the law in your country now protects you, you can simply say: "I understand employers can no longer ask that here, so I would prefer to talk about the range instead."

What to do with a very wide range

A range of 2,500 to 5,000 tells you almost nothing. That is worth pushing on.

• Ask what determines the position within the range: experience, scope, location, on-call duties?
• Ask what the typical offer looks like for someone at your level, not the theoretical maximum.
• Ask when the next pay review happens and how progression is decided.

If the answers are vague, treat that as a signal. A company that cannot explain its own pay structure is probably not going to explain your raise either.

A word for employers

If you are hiring, the new rules are not just paperwork. They are a chance to fix a process that has wasted everyone's time for years. Publish a real range. Agree internally on how you decide where a candidate lands in it. Train your recruiters to stop asking the old questions. The companies that do this well will hire faster and argue less.

One honest caveat

The directive sets a minimum standard, not a single European salary system. National laws go further in some places and lag in others. If a specific situation matters to you, a contract clause, a suspected pay gap, a refused range, check the rules in your own country or ask a local adviser. This article is a map of the debate, not legal advice for your case.

The salary conversation is not disappearing. It is just becoming a conversation about the job, the range, and the criteria, instead of a conversation about your past. That is a healthier place to start, for both sides.