Pay Transparency in Recruitment: What Employers Need to Change

Article 5 of the EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970) sets specific requirements for recruitment. It covers the pay information an applicant receives, questions an employer must not ask, and the need for gender-neutral vacancy notices, job titles and non-discriminatory recruitment processes.

For HR, People and recruitment teams, the practical task is not simply to rewrite a job advert. It is to make the information given to candidates consistent with the organisation’s pay approach, recruitment controls and documentation. This guide explains Article 5 at EU level. It is not legal advice and does not replace consideration of applicable national law or collective-agreement arrangements.

What Article 5 changes in recruitment

Article 5 brings four connected requirements into the hiring process: applicants must receive information about the initial pay level or its range; employers must not ask about pay history; vacancy notices and job titles must be gender-neutral; and recruitment processes must be non-discriminatory.

Directive requirement — Article 5: Applicants must receive information about the initial pay level or its range, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria attributable to the position concerned and, where applicable, relevant provisions of the collective agreement applied by the employer. The information must be provided in a manner that enables informed and transparent negotiation on pay — such as in a published vacancy notice, prior to the job interview or otherwise before the employment contract is concluded.

What this does not say: Article 5 does not state that a pay range must appear in every job advertisement. A published vacancy notice is one example of how the information may be provided, not the only route named in the Directive. Article 5 also does not create a separate, invented pre-contract deadline beyond its own timing and method formulation.

The operational implication is that employers need a reliable, reviewable route for providing the required information at the relevant point in recruitment, rather than leaving the process to individual recruiter discretion.

Pay information before employment

Directive requirement — Article 5: The applicant must receive information about the initial pay level or its range, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria attributable to the position concerned and, where applicable, relevant provisions of the collective agreement applied by the employer. It must be provided in a way that enables informed and transparent negotiation on pay. The Directive gives examples of the route and timing: in a published vacancy notice, prior to the job interview or otherwise before the employment contract is concluded.

GenderGov recommendation: Document the operational inputs your organisation uses to apply those criteria consistently. Depending on the pay framework, these may include role scope, skills, responsibility, relevant experience and the level or pay structure assigned to the position. These are practical examples for building a repeatable process, not additional criteria expressly listed by Article 5.

Where pay information is not published in the advert, define who supplies it, which approved source they use, and how the step is recorded before the relevant recruitment stage. A usable process should answer four questions: What pay information is approved for the position? Which objective, gender-neutral criteria support it? When will the applicant receive it? Who is accountable for giving it?

Pay-history questions

Directive requirement — Article 5: Employers must not ask applicants about their pay history in current or previous employment relationships.

This is broader than deleting one question from an application form. Pay-history questions can appear in recruiter scripts, interview notes, agency briefs, onboarding forms and informal conversations about a candidate’s current package or previous salary. These routes should therefore be reviewed as part of the same process.

GenderGov recommendation: Replace pay-history prompts with role-based questions. For example, ask whether the role’s published or explained pay information aligns with the candidate’s expectations, and use the approved position criteria to discuss any proposed offer. Give recruiters a clear escalation route for questions instead of asking them to infer the offer from a candidate’s past remuneration.

Gender-neutral vacancy notices and job titles

Directive requirement — Article 5: Employers must ensure that vacancy notices and job titles are gender-neutral.

This applies to the language used to name and describe the opportunity. It should be part of normal vacancy approval rather than a late copy-editing step.

GenderGov recommendation: Add a gender-neutral language check to the job-advert template and approval workflow. Review titles, short descriptions, requirements and examples for wording that could unnecessarily signal a preferred gender or narrow the candidate pool. Keep a controlled template library so internal teams and agencies work from the same standard.

Non-discriminatory recruitment processes

Directive requirement — Article 5: Employers must ensure that recruitment processes are conducted in a non-discriminatory manner.

The Directive sets the outcome standard, not one mandatory recruitment design. Employers should therefore be able to show that the criteria and decisions used in hiring are relevant to the position and applied consistently.

GenderGov recommendation: Use role-based selection criteria, structured interview guidance and proportionate approval steps. Align the criteria used to assess the candidate with the criteria used to position the offer within the approved pay level or range. This gives recruitment, HR and compensation teams a consistent basis for explaining decisions.

What HR and recruitment teams should review now

Start with the candidate journey rather than a policy document. Trace a vacancy from requisition to accepted offer and record four things: where the initial pay information comes from, when it is shared, which controls prevent pay-history questions, and how the recruitment and offer decision is documented.

Review a representative sample of job advertisements, recruiter and agency scripts, interview guidance, offer approvals and recruitment records. The aim is to identify gaps between the written process and what candidates actually experience, then assign owners for the changes that matter.

The review should test whether:

• applicants receive approved initial pay information through a defined route and within the Article 5 formulation;
• forms, scripts and interviews avoid direct and indirect questions about current or previous pay;
• vacancy titles and descriptions use gender-neutral language;
• selection and offer decisions rely on relevant, consistently applied criteria; and
• the organisation can retrieve a proportionate record of the information shared and the decision made.

Directive requirements vs operational good practice

Article 5 expressly requires: information about the initial pay level or its range based on objective, gender-neutral criteria attributable to the position concerned; provision in a manner that enables informed and transparent pay negotiation, using the Directive’s stated examples of timing or method; no questions about current or previous pay history; gender-neutral vacancy notices and job titles; and non-discriminatory recruitment processes.

GenderGov recommends as good operational practice: publishing pay information by default where appropriate; documenting the position’s approved pay inputs; training recruiters, hiring managers and agencies; using controlled vacancy templates and structured interview guidance; recording key offer decisions; and periodically sampling recruitment materials for consistency.

The legal requirements set the baseline. The operational recommendations are ways to make that baseline repeatable, auditable and easier for teams to apply. They should not be presented as additional wording of the Directive.

Practical employer checklist

• Assign ownership for recruitment pay-information standards across HR, Talent Acquisition, Compensation and Legal.
• Confirm the approved route for giving applicants initial pay information under Article 5.
• Remove pay-history questions from forms, scripts, interview guidance and agency instructions.
• Add gender-neutral vacancy and job-title checks to the normal approval workflow.
• Use consistent, role-based selection and offer decision criteria.
• Sample the candidate journey periodically and record the priority actions needed.

Related GenderGov resources

• Read the detailed Article 5 — Pay Transparency Prior to Employment Playbook Part.
• Use the Employer Operational Readiness Guide to connect recruitment changes with wider pay-data and governance work.
• Refer to What Is the EU Pay Transparency Directive? for the broader framework.
• See Employee Rights & Remedies Under EU Pay Transparency Directive 2023/970 for the wider rights and enforcement context.