This guide covers pay transparency requirements for employers operating in or hiring from France under the EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970/EU) and existing national legislation. The EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970/EU) requires all 27 member states to transpose its requirements into national law by June 7, 2026. The Directive mandates that employers disclose salary ranges in job postings, prohibit salary history inquiries, and report pay gap data for larger organisations. See the full EU Directive guide for the complete framework.
Current status in France
Who does this apply to?
- Employers with operations in France or posting roles accessible to France-based candidates
- Employee threshold for Directive obligations: All employers (posting); 50+ for Index reporting
Job posting requirements
- Salary range: Salary range in job postings required under Directive — French law already requires pay equity analysis
- Salary history ban: Prohibited under Directive
- Pay gap reporting: Employers with 50+ employees must calculate and publish the Gender Equality Index annually
French Gender Equality Index (Index d'égalité professionnelle)
French employers with 50 or more employees have been required since 2019 to calculate and publish their Gender Equality Index — a score from 0 to 100 covering gender pay gap, individual salary increases, promotions, and return from maternity leave. Companies scoring below 75 must set and publish corrective measures. The EU Directive adds job posting salary range requirements on top of this existing framework. French HR teams already familiar with the Index will need to extend their compliance work to cover posting-level transparency.
Employer checklist for France
- ✓ Include salary range in all job postings for France-applicable roles
- ✓ Remove salary history inquiries from applications and interviews
- ✓ Understand your pay gap reporting obligations under the Directive
- ✓ Brief recruiters on the requirements for roles in France
How RoleComply helps
RoleComply checks every posting for France compliance — whether you're operating there directly or hiring remote workers based in France. As the Directive's transposition deadline approaches, RoleComply's scanning rules update automatically to reflect each country's enacted legislation, so your team doesn't need to track individual national laws.
What the EU Directive means for France employers
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970/EU) sets binding minimum standards across all 27 member states. For employers in France, it builds on existing national law — Loi Avenir Professionnel — and introduces new obligations that will apply once France transposes the Directive by 7 June 2026.
The core requirements are: mandatory salary range in every job posting, a ban on salary history questions, the right for employees to request pay gap comparisons, and mandatory pay gap reporting for employers with 100 or more employees. The European Commission pay transparency guidance and the Ministère du Travail are the authoritative sources for France-specific implementation details.
Practical steps for France employers
Audit every job posting now. Review all roles advertised in France across your careers page, LinkedIn, local job boards, and any recruitment agencies posting on your behalf. Every posting needs a salary range once the Directive is transposed — starting the audit now means you are ahead of the deadline rather than reacting to it.
Build a pay banding framework. The Directive requires ranges to reflect objective, gender-neutral criteria. This means a structured compensation system: roles mapped to levels, benchmarked against market data, with documented factors for variation within each band. Without this foundation, you cannot post defensible ranges.
Prepare for pay gap reporting. Employers with 100 or more employees in France will need to calculate and report their gender pay gap. Unlike equal pay analysis (which compares pay for identical work), pay gap reporting looks at average pay across your entire workforce. Start tracking pay, role, and gender data now.
Train HR and recruiters. Front-line teams need to know that salary history questions are banned, that vague phrases like "competitive salary" are prohibited, and that every posting needs a real range — not a placeholder. Run a short briefing and update your posting templates before the deadline.
Penalties
The Directive requires France to establish "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" penalties. Employers found to have pay discrimination face reversed burden of proof: once a complaint is raised, the employer must demonstrate their pay practices are lawful. See our full EU Directive guide for the complete framework, or read our pay transparency 101 guide for the broader context.
