In the current Polish labour market, disclosure of salaries by employers is standard only in certain industries, particularly in the IT sector. Many employers do not disclose salary information to protect company secrets. Hence, it appears, that the norm is not to disclose salary ranges in recruitment advertisements, use of salary secrecy provisions and for employers to increasingly rarely set pay grades, which translates into less disclosure of salaries in organisations.

At the same time, the lack of wage openness contributes to the perpetuation of the gender wage gap, which reaches 12.7% in the European Union, according to Eurostat data from 2021. In Poland, according to various sources, the wage gap ranges from 4.5% to almost 20%. Differences in estimates are due to the methodology adopted, in particular whether the so-called raw wage gap, which is the difference between the average wages of employees of both sexes, or the so-called adjusted wage gap, which is a measure of the difference in wages between men and women with similar characteristics (e.g. age, education level, length of service) or employed in similar positions, is studied.

Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms was adopted on 10 May 2023. What new obligations will employers face? How does EU law understand equal pay?