Austrian Workers Gain New Right to Ask Colleagues’ Salaries as EU Deadline Misses

Austria misses EU deadline; Labour Minister Schumann tables pay transparency draft with salary reporting for firms over 100 employees, job ad pay disclosure, and ban on pay secrecy. Reactions divided.

Labour Minister Korinna Schumann (SPÖ) tabled a draft law to transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive – without securing the usual prior agreement from social partners. The move came just days before the European Union’s implementation deadline of 7 June, which Austria, along with ten other member states, has now missed.

The central aim of the proposed rules is to further narrow the gender pay gap. To achieve that, the draft introduces several far-reaching transparency obligations for employers.

Companies with more than 100 employees will be required to compile regular income reports. Those with between 100 and 249 staff must submit a report every three years; firms with 250 or more employees face an annual reporting obligation. The law also strengthens the individual right of workers to request information: employees may ask for their own salary and the average pay of colleagues in comparable positions. All job advertisements must include a salary figure, and confidentiality clauses that previously prevented workers from discussing their remuneration are banned. Collective bargaining agreements remain the foundation for wage setting.

Reactions to the proposal are deeply divided. Business representatives criticised the administrative burden. Jochen Danninger, secretary-general of the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKÖ), called the draft bureaucratically onerous. Georg Knill, president of the Federation of Austrian Industries (IV), warned of a massive build-up of red tape that could harm competitiveness. He argued the EU directive tries to impose uniform rules on very different national realities. Tanja Graf of the Economic Alliance said the social partnership itself was at risk.

On the other side, the Chamber of Labour (AK) and the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) welcomed the draft as a necessary step toward fairer pay. Women’s Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner (SPÖ) also endorsed it. Green Party MP Meret Disoski, however, criticised the late submission and what she described as political back-and-forth.

Minister Schumann pointed to two and a half years of negotiations, stressing the law is no rushed product but the result of lengthy consultations. The goal, she said, is to ward off financial penalties from Brussels for non?compliance. So far only Italy, Lithuania and Slovakia have fully transposed the directive. To give businesses time to adapt, administrative fines will not take effect until one year after the law enters into force.