Last Updated on June 12, 2026
Legislative Decree no. 96 of 7 May 2026 has been published, transposing into Italian law EU Directive 2023/970, which aims to strengthen the effectiveness of the principle of equal pay for men and women, with particular attention to transparency of pay systems and prevention of wage discrimination (see our newsflash of 19 May 2023 “Equal pay and pay transparency: Directive published“).
Scope and definitions
The Decree applies to subordinate employment contracts, both fixed-term and open-ended, including part-time and executive positions, whereas domestic and intermittent (on-call) work is still excluded.
The measure is part of European initiatives aimed at making the principle of equal pay for men and women effective. In this sense, particularly relevant is the adoption of a broad notion of remuneration, which includes not only the basic salary, but any form of compensation granted to workers, even indirectly or in kind, including accessories and variable components. The measure also clarifies that remuneration level must be understood as all the continuous and fixed salary elements with the exclusion of non-structural individual ones, such as discretionary or temporary bonuses. The new disciplinary relates to equal pay for the “same work” or “work of equal value“. When the company has applied a collective agreement, the assessment is based on the classifications provided for therein:
- The “same work” means when the tasks are identical or attributable to the same qualification, within the same salary level and the same legal category;
- Whereas “work of equal value” means different but comparable tasks based on the same classification levels.
Where the company has no collective agreement, the sector collective agreement signed by the most representative trade unions at a national level is applied. Moreover, the adoption of a collective agreement with these characteristics constitutes a presumption of compliance with the principles of equal pay, without prejudice to the possibility of demonstrating individual cases of pay discrimination. In addition to the provisions of the collective agreement, professional classification and evaluation systems adopted by employers for the purposes of determining wages are also permitted, provided that these follow objective and gender-neutral criteria.
Transparency and information obligations
The Decree introduces an articulated system of transparency obligations concerning all the different stages in the employment relationship.
Right from the pre-employment phase, employers are required to indicate, in the job posting, the initial salary or relative band to be attributed to the position; it is also expressly prohibited to request information from candidates about their remuneration in current or previous positions, including through third parties.
During the relationship, workers must have clear access to the criteria that determine remuneration, salary levels and economic progression, which must be based on objective and gender-neutral parameters. However, companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from the obligation to make criteria relating to economic progression available. In this context, a central role is played by information provided at the time of hiring in compliance with Legislative Decree 152/1997, governing the level of classification, initial salary and the collective agreement applied.
Workers also have the right to obtain information on average salary levels, by gender, with reference to providers performing the same work or work of equal value. Employers are required to provide a response within two months of the request and may comply with this obligation also by publication of the data on the intranet or in a reserved area of the company website. Companies must also inform all workers annually of the existence of this right and how to exercise it.
To ensure transparency, the measure renders null and void any term of contract that prohibits workers from disclosing their remuneration.
Pay Gap
The gender pay gap monitoring system is also particularly important. Employers with at least 100 employees are required to collect and transmit detailed data regarding their gender pay gap, including the different components of remuneration and how the same is distributed according to gender. This information must be made available to a new National Monitoring Body, workers and their representatives as well as, upon request, to the competent authorities.
The timelines for collecting the data in question vary according to company size and the relative methods of transmission will be defined by forthcoming ministerial decrees:
- by 7 June 2027 and every year thereafter for employers with at least 250 employees;
- by 7 June 2027 and every three years thereafter for employers with between 150 and 249 employees;
- by 7 June 2031 and every three years thereafter for employers with between 100 and 149 employees.
The Decree also includes a corrective mechanism of particular importance. If a pay gap of at least 5% should emerge in any given category of workers and this gap is not justifiable based on objective and neutral criteria, nor is it corrected within six months, employers shall be required to initiate a joint wage evaluation with the workers’ representatives in order to identify the causes of the disparities and take, within a reasonable time, the necessary measures to eliminate them.
Protection and sanctions
Regarding protection, the Decree refers to the provisions of the “National Code of Equal Opportunities between Women and Men” (Legislative Decree 198/2006) which provides for:
- a broad active legitimacy, extended to equality directors, proxy trade union representatives, trade union organisations, and associations that, by statute, pursue equality protection purposes;
- the possibility for workers to file an urgent petition to a labour judge;
- the inversion of the burden of proof in favour of the victim of discrimination;
- the adoption of inhibitory measures and orders aimed at removing the detrimental effects of the conduct;
- protection against retaliation against or unfavourable treatment towards the person intending to assert their right to equal gender pay (so-called victimisation).
Regarding sanctions, the measure expressly refers to art. 41 of the Equal Opportunities Code, which states that relative fines also apply in the event of violation of the pay transparency provisions. Employers may also have benefits withdrawn and, in the most serious cases, be excluded from access to further benefits or participation in procurement procedures.
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In force from 7 June 2026, this Decree is a significant step towards greater regulation and transparency of company compensation policies, requiring employers to take a more systematic, aware, and documented approach to the management of remuneration and any gender disparities.
Toffoletto De Luca Tamajo has developed GAP IQ, a service that supports companies at every stage of implementation of the decree in question.
