Employers must provide applicants with information about the initial pay or its range early enough to support informed and transparent pay negotiations. Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 gives a published vacancy notice and disclosure before the job interview as examples of how this can be done. The European Commission now describes the practical rule as telling job seekers the starting salary or pay range in the vacancy notice or ahead of the interview. Employers should therefore build salary disclosure into the recruitment process before substantive interview-stage pay negotiation, while also checking whether the applicable Member State requires an even more specific timing or format.
Jurisdiction: European Union
Article 5 Creates a Pre-Employment Right to Pay Information
Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 gives applicants the right to receive information from the prospective employer about the initial pay or its range for the position. The amount or range must be based on objective and gender-neutral criteria. Where a collective agreement applies to the position, the employer must also provide the relevant provisions of that agreement. This is a pre-employment transparency right, so the employer should not wait until after an offer has effectively been negotiated to reveal the basic pay framework. The information is meant to influence the applicant's understanding of the role before pay is settled.
The Directive Uses an Informed-Negotiation Standard
The legal text does not simply say that a number must appear at one fixed point in every recruitment process. Instead, Article 5 says the information must be provided in a way that ensures informed and transparent negotiation on pay. It then gives examples, including a published job vacancy notice, disclosure before the job interview or another suitable method. This matters because recruitment processes differ across employers and Member States. The compliance question is therefore both what information is provided and whether the applicant receives it early enough to use it meaningfully when deciding whether to proceed and when discussing pay.
The European Commission Describes the Rule as Vacancy or Ahead of Interview
In its June 2026 explanation of the new EU rules, the European Commission states that employers will have to inform job seekers about the starting salary or pay range in the vacancy notice or ahead of the interview. That summary gives employers a clear operational direction: salary information should be placed before the interview stage unless national law requires it even earlier. A recruitment process that waits until several interviews have been completed before revealing the pay range would be difficult to reconcile with the objective of informed and transparent negotiation described by Article 5.
A Job Advertisement Is One Route, Not the Only EU-Level Route
Article 5 expressly lists a published vacancy notice as one way to provide the required information, but the Directive itself does not say that every vacancy notice in every Member State must always contain the range. It also refers to disclosure before the interview or another method that achieves informed and transparent negotiation. National law can go further and require salary information directly in job advertisements. Employers should therefore distinguish the EU-level baseline from the specific national rule. A central EU recruitment policy can set an early-disclosure minimum while local teams add stricter country requirements.
The Pay Information Must Be Based on Objective Gender-Neutral Criteria
Timing is only part of the requirement. The initial pay level or range must be based on objective and gender-neutral criteria for the position. Employers should therefore avoid creating an arbitrary number simply to satisfy a disclosure step. The range should connect to the organisation's pay structure, job value, market approach, collective-agreement rules where relevant and other defensible criteria. If recruiters are allowed to improvise different ranges for similar candidates, the disclosure may be transparent in form but unreliable in substance. Pay-range approval should happen before recruitment begins.
Recruiters Need a Clear Disclosure Point in the Workflow
A compliant process should define who approves the salary information, where it is stored and when the candidate receives it. Employers might publish the range in the vacancy, place it in an applicant portal, include it in the invitation to interview or use another documented method permitted by national law. The important control is that the disclosure point is predictable and occurs early enough for the applicant to make an informed decision. Recruiters and hiring managers should not be left to decide individually whether a candidate has earned the right to know the range.
Check National Implementation Before Standardising the Process
Directive (EU) 2023/970 sets minimum EU requirements, but Member States implement those requirements through national law. A Member State may require pay information in the advertisement itself, specify additional content or impose procedural requirements beyond the Directive's baseline. Multi-country employers should therefore maintain a country matrix showing the local disclosure rule and build those requirements into shared recruiting systems. The group-wide rule should never be weaker than the Directive baseline, but local law may require an earlier or more prescriptive disclosure step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Must salary information be provided before the interview?
The Commission describes the practical rule as disclosure in the vacancy notice or ahead of the interview. Article 5 requires information to be provided in a way that ensures informed and transparent pay negotiation and gives disclosure before the interview as one example.
Must the salary range always be in the job advertisement?
Not under the Directive's text alone. A vacancy notice is one permitted route, while national implementing law may require the range to appear directly in the advertisement.
Can an employer disclose salary only after several interviews?
That approach risks conflicting with the purpose of Article 5 because applicants are supposed to receive the information early enough for informed and transparent pay negotiation.
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.