This guide covers pay transparency requirements for employers operating in or hiring from Italy 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 Italy
Who does this apply to?
- Employers with operations in Italy or posting roles accessible to Italy-based candidates
- Employee threshold for Directive obligations: All employers
Job posting requirements
- Salary range: Salary range in postings required from June 2026
- Salary history ban: Prohibited under Directive
- Pay gap reporting: Employers with 50+ employees must certify gender equality (biennial) and report pay data
Italy's gender equality certification
Italian employers with 50 or more employees must submit biennial reports on workforce gender equality to the Ministry of Labour and can pursue voluntary UNI/PdR 125:2022 gender equality certification. The EU Directive will require salary range disclosure in job postings by June 2026 — a new obligation requiring Italian HR teams to update posting workflows and recruiter training.
Employer checklist for Italy
- ✓ Include salary range in all job postings for Italy-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 Italy
How RoleComply helps
RoleComply checks every posting for Italy compliance — whether you're operating there directly or hiring remote workers based in Italy. 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 Italy employers
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970/EU) sets binding minimum standards across all 27 member states. For employers in Italy, it builds on existing national law — Codice delle pari opportunità — and introduces new obligations that will apply once Italy 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 Ministry of Labour are the authoritative sources for Italy-specific implementation details.
Practical steps for Italy employers
Audit every job posting now. Review all roles advertised in Italy 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 Italy 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 Italy 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.
