It has been one year since the enactment of Directive 2023/970 of the European Parliament, also known as the Salary Transparency Law. This law will require

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Directive 2023/970 from the European Parliament, known as the Salary Transparency Law, mandates companies to publicize salary ranges and disclose pay criteria by 2026. The law aims to reduce the gender pay gap to a maximum of 5%. It also empowers employees to request salary information for colleagues performing equivalent work. Companies will face staggered deadlines for compliance based on workforce size, with larger firms required to act sooner.

Europe to End “Salary Secrecy”: Employee Salaries to Become Public by 2026

Employees Will Know How Much Their Colleagues Earn

Lights and Shadows of Salary Transparency

There’re so many things wrong about this I don’t even know where to start.
First of all, salary secrecy is a safety concern for all parts involved. This is blatantly obvious.
Second, there are no two persons that are equal. Some perform better than others. And it’s ok. But different performances demand different compensations.
Third, it’s a private contract between two free individuals. If you accepted a lower salary that’s on you. Either you didn’t research properly or you can afford to earn less. Your reasons, nobody but you should care.
Fourth, it’s just a wrong economical policy. It’s a step towards regulating salaries which will create wrong incentives: if I’m a better performer, why should I work harder if I make the same as you who don’t work as hard as I do? It will also create a bigger entry market barrier for newcomers, who could afford to be paid less, but now have to justify a higher compensation which they will simply won’t be able to.
Fifth, which of the 2000+ (and growing) genders pay gaps they want to cover? All of them? There’s just one way to make this possible: pay no wages! Oh but that’s slavery…
There are so many violations of civil rights undergoing all around the said ‘free world’ that should scare the crap out of anyone with more than 2 brain cells. We never left the Dark Ages.

I disagree on the reasoning stated (the gender gap is not the issue it once was and hasn’t been for a while, especially in tech where what you have is a skills gap) but I’m all for keeping employers from being able to prevent you from knowing what you are worth.

Europe is going to much in the socialist direction. We had similar things in Croatia during the Communist era. It was a bit different but the end goal was that everybody had the same salary. The same thing is gonna happen if this is enforced.
The same salary to everybody leads to lack of motivation and lower lower job efficiencies. There was a saying you cant pay me as little for as little work I can do.

I can’t wait for this to be applied everywhere, I know a Jr and a Sr that earn almost the same in the same company but we can’t talk about it or we will be fired