The process of transposing EU Directive 2023/970 (so-called Pay Transparency Direcive) into Italian law is now underway with a new draft legislative decree approved on February 5^th, 2026. It will focus on pay transparency and on strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women for the same work or for work of equal value implementing a new path which involves the evolution of salary in the workplace and introducing specific information requirements and a set of new obligations.

The Italian framework

The current draft Italian legislation (with a deadline of June 7th, 2026 for full adoption) takes an approach consistent with the Italian national system and seeks to enhance the existing parameters as defined by the relevant Collective Bargaining Agreements - with a focus on the sustainability of the requirements, in accordance with a business organisation’s internal practices within the framework of the significant role of the Italian national industrial relations system.

The underlying idea seems to be that the Italian system, thanks in part to the 2022 Transparency Decree (Italian Legislative Decree No. 104/2022), of Collective Bargaining Agreements (the ones comparatively more representative at the national level) and tools such as the biennial report on the situation of male and female staff, alrea...