From principle to practice: the European Commission and EIGE launch the updated EU-wide guidelines on gender-neutral job evaluation and classification to help organisations ensure equal pay for work of equal value between women and men. This ultimately supports talent attraction and retention and boosts competitiveness.
“The Pay Transparency Directive, adopted in 2023, is an important step forward in addressing the gender pay gap more effectively, which still amounts to over 11% in the EU,” says Pinuccia Contino, Head of the Gender Equality Unit at the European Commission’s DG JUST.
“Supporting employers in this endeavour, and ensuring effective and timely implementation on the ground, is key.”
This is why the European Commission, together with EIGE, is stepping up support to employers through updated EU-wide guidelines on gender-neutral job evaluation and classification — helping turn legal obligations into practical action.
“To reap the benefits of pay transparency, companies will need to become fully aware of the value of the jobs in their organisations,” Pinuccia adds.
“Equal pay is not only about the same work. It is also about work that is different in nature, or that appears to be different but is, in fact, worth the same.”
This is where those hidden gaps begin to surface.
The principle of equal pay for the same work or work of equal value between women and men has been a founding principle of the European Union since the Treaty of Rome in 1957. It has been transposed into national legal systems of the Member States through secondary legislations and further clarified by the Court of Justice of the EU. However, gaps of regulatory nature and lack of awareness concerning the notion of ‘work of equal value’ persist – making the right to equal pay an inert legal provision.
How to fix pay discrimination and ensure equal pay
The EU’s gender pay gap stands at over 11%. While this headline number is well known, what drives it is less visible.
Too often, it is buried inside a job evaluation system that can carry historical patterns and never questions its own assumptions.
The updated EU-wide guidelines, designed as a step-by-step toolkit, offer a practical guide to understanding the worth of each role in your organisation, and spotting and correcting the gender biases that often go unseen.
The toolkit then provides a roadmap to building pay structures that respect equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between women and men. The approach works for everything from micro-organisations to large employers.
We know that many roles predominantly carried out by women are undervalued.
And that the job requirements and skills most associated with their work, such as emotional effort or care, are routinely treated as personal traits rather than professional competencies.
The toolkit allows an honest appraisal so their contribution to competitiveness is counted. And women are properly paid for it, grounded in evidence.
The principle on equal pay is clear.
So, what is the path forward for workplaces?
The EU Pay Transparency Directive aims to reinforce the implementation of principle of equal pay for work of equal value in practice.
It requires employers to assess jobs using at least four objective, gender-neutral criteria: skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions. These criteria form the foundation for ensuring fair job assessments and compliance with the equal pay principle.
The directive also gives workers the right to pay information and empowers them to claim their right to equal pay.
But, while legislation sets the standard, it doesn't hand anyone a roadmap.
“Equal pay is often about work that looks different on paper but is worth the same in practice. That's a hard concept to act on. Which is why we built the tools to support employers in making it real.” says Pinuccia Contino, Head of the Gender Equality Unit at the European Commission's DG JUST.
“Employers who ensure equal pay can close unjustified gender pay gaps while building workplaces that attract and keep the best people.
“That's not a soft benefit, it’s competitiveness in action.”
A step-by-step toolkit to reveal the value of every job in an organisation
The toolkit is built around the four objective and gender-neutral criteria: skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
Each is broken down into sub-factors so that nothing is left off to bias and stereotypes.
Three pathways make it accessible to organisations of every size. Micro, small and medium-sized organisations have simplified routes, while larger organisations follow the standard approach.
For trade unions, there's a negotiation aid. For workers, an equal pay conversation guide. And for those carrying out evaluations, templates, scoring tools and guides.
The toolkit serves to evaluate jobs, not people. So, it is not about individual performance.
Instead, it produces a transparent basis for building a pay structure that can stand up to scrutiny and ensure equal pay for work of equal value.
Why fair pay is good business
EIGE’s evidence shows that transparent pay systems build trust. Workers who understand how their pay is determined are more engaged and less likely to leave.
“The toolkit gives organisations a clear, evidence-based way to understand the real value of every job,” says Carlien.
“That clarity protects employers. But more than that, it builds the kind of workplace people actually want to work in. Then compliance and competitiveness work together.”
Fair pay now ranks as the second most important reason people stay with their employers. So, for organisations facing skills shortages, addressing pay gaps is strategically important.
EIGE’s joint policy brief with Eurofound also shows that gender‑neutral job evaluation is not just about compliance: it strengthens fairness, helps attract and retain talent, and gives employers the confidence that their pay structures are built to last.
Take the first step today
The toolkit is available now, in two formats: a detailed publication and an interactive version on EIGE's Gender Mainstreaming platform.
Whatever the size of your organisation, there is a tailored pathway designed for you to lighten the effort - providing you a solid basis to build fair and transparent pay structures more easily.
The principle of equal pay for work of equal value - free from gender-bias – has been on the books for decades. The tools to make it real are here today.
