Equal pay between women and men is a fundamental principle enshrined in many legislative texts over several decades. Among the reference texts: Article 157 TFEU (previous Article 149 of the Treaty on the European Community); Directive 2006/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 July 2006 on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in employment and occupation, CBA N°25 of 15 October 1975; ; the Act of 10 May 2007 aimed at combating certain forms of discrimination; the Act of 22 April 2012 aimed at combating the wage gap between men and women.

 

Despite this heavy legislative arsenal, pay inequalities persist. In view of this, European Directive 2023/970 of 10 May 2023 was adopted to reinforce the effectiveness of the principle of equal pay through two major objectives:

  • Strengthen transparency in remuneration systems
  • Overcome procedural obstacles for victims of discrimination

What changes for employers?

All employers, public or private, must ensure equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. To achieve this, new obligations have been introduced:

✅  Transparency from the moment of recruitment: obligation of transparency of remuneration from the moment the job offer is made and prohibition on asking candidates about their current or previous remuneration

✅   Establishment of objective criteria, accessible to employees, for the setting and evolution of salaries

✅   Strengthening of pay transparency with an obligation to inform employees about their individual pay and average pay levels broken down by gender, for colleagues doing the same job or work of equal value

✅   Annual information for employees about their right to pay transparency

✅   Obligation for companies with more than 100 employees to provide information to the national authorities on the gender pay gap and on the proportion of female and male employees benefiting from supplementary or variable components

✅   Collaboration with personnel representatives to identify, correct and prevent discriminatory pay differences

 

 

What are the consequences in the event of non-compliance by the employer?

In the event of a breach, the directive facilitates employees’ access to justice to claim full compensation for their prejudice:

⚖   Right to act on the basis of personal feelings: personal feelings would be sufficient, according to the directive, to initiate legal proceedings

⚖   Reversal of the burden of proof: it is now up to the employer to demonstrate the absence of direct or indirect pay discrimination

 

📅 Transposition deadline: Belgium must transpose this directive before 7 June 2026. To date, although no bill has yet been tabled, several initiatives have already been launched to prepare for this transposition, including the Be-Magic (Modernisation and Adaptation of Gender-neutral Instruments of Classification) project initiated by the FPS Employment, Labour and Consultation (funded by the European Commission). This project, planned over a period of 24 months (starting on 15 January 2025 and ending on 14 January 2027) aims not only to correctly transpose the European directive, but also to assist the social partners in the context of sectoral consultation on pay structures (by developing and making available to them analytical tools and methods for introducing gender-neutral job evaluation and classification systems).

 

It will therefore be necessary to pay close attention to what is adopted in the coming months.

 

Amal Akoudad
Frédérique Gillet