Employers support putting the Pay Transparency Directive on hold.

The Eesti Tööandjate Keskliit, which represents larger employers, supports taking a pause in the implementation of the Pay Transparency Directive.

Comments Ain Käpp, Member of the Council and Head of the Labour Market Working Group at the Eesti Tööandjate Keskliit:

Estonian employers have recommended implementing the Pay Transparency Directive in a minimal way and without additional bureaucracy, and therefore we support taking a pause in its adoption.

Employer opposition to the new requirements—both in Estonia and elsewhere in Europe—is largely driven by the additional and unnecessary bureaucracy they would introduce. The largest pan-European business organization, BusinessEurope, which represents around 20 million employers and of which the Eesti Tööandjate Keskliit is a member, has also recommended that the European Commission pause the Pay Transparency Directive for two years.

While employers support the principle of equal pay for equal work, the directive has been described by members of BusinessEurope as “unworkable administrative complexity,” meaning that its requirements are not practical in a real business environment.

For example, the methodology for assessing “work of equal value” is so complex that companies cannot implement it without significant additional costs and specialized expertise.

According to BusinessEurope, most Member States have not made sufficient progress in implementing the directive by the deadline—not due to a lack of willingness, but because of its significant complexity, major cultural differences, and the systemic changes it requires.

This has also been highlighted by countries such as Sweden, where the new requirements do not align well with its labour market model based on collective agreements.

Every unnecessary bureaucratic requirement comes at a cost to society, as it reduces economic competitiveness and, as a result, lowers the state’s tax revenue.