Yes, part-time workers can count as workers under the EU Pay Transparency Directive. Recital 18 expressly identifies part-time workers among the groups that should fall within the Directive where they have an employment contract or employment relationship recognised under the law, collective agreements or practice of the relevant Member State. Part-time status therefore does not by itself remove a worker from pay-transparency or equal-pay protections. For Article 9 reporting thresholds, however, employers should check the applicable national implementation before deciding whether a part-time worker is counted as one person, a fraction, a full-time equivalent or under another methodology.
Jurisdiction: European Union
Part-Time Workers Are Expressly Identified in the Directive's Scope Recitals
Recital 18 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 expressly identifies part-time workers among the workers who should fall within the Directive where they have the required employment contract or employment relationship. Article 2 provides the legal scope rule by applying the Directive to workers whose employment contract or employment relationship is recognised under the law, collective agreements or practice of the relevant Member State, taking account of Court of Justice case-law. The practical consequence is that part-time status is not an exclusion. An employer should first ask whether the person is a worker under the applicable legal framework, not whether the person works a full-time schedule.
Working Fewer Hours Does Not Remove Pay-Transparency Rights
Once a part-time worker is within the Directive's worker scope, the employer should assess the relevant rights in the same structured way it would for other workers. That can include the right to request information about the worker's individual pay level and relevant average pay levels by sex for categories of workers performing the same work or work of equal value. The equal-pay principle also remains relevant. Different working hours can legitimately affect total earnings, but employers should avoid confusing differences caused by hours worked with differences in pay rates, pay-setting criteria or access to variable compensation. Comparable analysis should use the correct pay measures and objective, gender-neutral criteria.
Coverage and Reporting Headcount Are Two Different Questions
A common mistake is to treat the question 'Is this person a covered worker?' as identical to 'How is this person counted for the Article 9 reporting threshold?' They are not the same question. The Directive gives a broad worker-scope rule and separately creates reporting bands at 100, 150 and 250 workers. Article 9 does not provide a complete operational formula for every part-time headcount scenario. An employer should therefore establish that the worker is within scope first and then determine the correct reporting-count treatment under the applicable national implementation. This prevents a headcount methodology from being used to erase substantive worker rights.
Do Not Automatically Convert Part-Time Workers Into FTE Fractions
Employers often maintain full-time-equivalent figures for budgeting and workforce planning. Those figures can be useful internally, but they should not automatically be imported into Article 9 reporting-threshold analysis. A national implementation may count persons, use a reference date, apply an averaging rule, use an FTE approach or adopt another method. The Directive itself does not justify assuming that a worker who works half the standard hours automatically counts as 0.5 for the reporting threshold. The compliance file should identify the national rule being applied and show how that rule treats part-time workers. Where authoritative guidance is not yet clear, the employer should avoid presenting an internal planning convention as a legal requirement.
Part-Time Status Can Matter When Interpreting Pay Data
Part-time work can affect the way raw compensation figures appear, so employers should understand the distinction between total annual earnings and comparable pay measures. The Directive defines pay level by reference to gross annual pay and the corresponding gross hourly pay. That structure helps avoid drawing conclusions from annual totals alone when working time differs. An employer reviewing possible pay differences should therefore examine whether a difference reflects hours worked, job value, variable compensation, progression or another objective factor. Part-time status should be handled transparently in the methodology so that it does not hide or falsely create a pay disparity.
Document How Part-Time Workers Are Treated in the Threshold File
Where the employer is close to 100, 150 or 250 workers, the treatment of part-time workers can affect the reporting-band conclusion if national law uses a method other than a simple person count. The employer should document the reporting entity, reference date or period, national source, source-system population and the treatment of part-time workers. If a fractional or FTE method is required, the calculation should be reproducible. If each covered worker counts as a person under the national rule, that should also be recorded. The goal is to make the threshold decision traceable rather than leaving it as an undocumented HR estimate.
National Implementation Remains the Operational Check
The EU Directive gives a strong answer on scope: part-time workers are not outside the framework merely because they work reduced hours. The operational reporting answer can still vary because Member States implement the Directive through national legislation and guidance. Employers should therefore check the relevant national rule before deciding how part-time workers affect a reporting threshold, how the reference workforce is measured and which authority receives the report. Multi-country employers may need different counting instructions by jurisdiction even when they use a common EU-wide compensation framework. The legal scope conclusion and the headcount calculation should remain separately documented.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are part-time workers covered by the EU Pay Transparency Directive?
Yes, where they have the required employment contract or employment relationship. Recital 18 expressly identifies part-time workers among the groups intended to fall within the Directive.
Does a part-time worker automatically count as half a worker for Article 9?
No. The Directive does not establish a universal rule that part-time workers must be converted into FTE fractions for Article 9 thresholds. Employers should follow the applicable national implementation and official guidance.
Can part-time workers have pay-information rights?
Yes. Where they are covered workers, part-time status does not by itself remove worker-information or equal-pay rights under the Directive.
Related Guides
Official Sources
Requirements and practices differ by jurisdiction and organisation. Check current local law, official guidance and professional advice for a specific situation.