Netherlands Delays Implementation of Pay Transparency Legislation
The Dutch government has announced that the target date for introducing domestic legislation to implement the Pay Transparency Directive is now 1 January 2027, instead of 7 June 2026 as required under the Directive.
The Netherlands was one of the first member states to publish draft implementing legislation – see our previous blog here. It says it is working on a careful implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive, but that the original planned timeline for timely implementation of the Directive has proven unfeasible – possibly not helped by the collapse of the Dutch government on 3 June. One of the main reasons given for the change is that the government says it needs more time to design the national legislation and its implementation in such a way that employers can meet their obligations effectively while keeping the administrative burden to a minimum. That said, based on what we have seen of the Directive so far, achieving a truly “minimal administrative burden” may be an overly optimistic goal.
The government aims to submit the draft bill to the Council of State before the end of this year, with parliamentary debate expected in 2026.
This delay will create a transitional period during which the Directive is already legally binding at EU level, but has not yet been fully incorporated into Dutch national law. During this interim phase, the Dutch courts will interpret existing national laws in line with the Directive’s objectives, a principle known as directive-conform interpretation (richtlijn conforme interpretatie). In our opinion, Dutch employers should therefore continue to seek to prioritise the practical implementation of the Directive in their workplaces, notwithstanding that the law may lag a little behind.
Certain obligations, such as pay gap reporting and pay evaluation requirements, will however remain on hold during this period. These new obligations require specific national legislation to be enforceable. As a result, employers with 150 or more employees will have to publish their first gender pay gap reports based on pay data from the calendar year 2027, rather than 2026. The timings for other employers subject to the new reporting requirements (i.e. those with 100 to 149 employees) remain unchanged, i.e. they must report on 2030 pay data in line with the existing timelines set out in the Directive.