On 24 December 2025, a provision comes into force that obliges employers to provide information on remuneration, its initial amount or range, before entering into an employment relationship, and to include gender-neutral job titles in job advertisements.
Meanwhile, much more far-reaching changes regarding equal pay for women and men are on the horizon.
Equal pay for women and men
Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council on strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women for equal work or work of equal value through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms entered into force on 6 June 2023. Member States have until 7 June 2026 to implement it.
So far, the Polish legislator has undertaken to implement only a small part of it, which results in changes coming into force on 24 December 2025 regarding informing job candidates about remuneration, as well as maintaining gender neutrality in recruitment advertisements.
However, on November 25, 2025, the Council of Ministers published the guidelines for the draft act on strengthening the application of the right to equal pay for men and women for equal work or work of equal value in its legislative and programmatic agenda. The act aims to fully implement Directive 2023/970 into Polish law.
The principle of equal pay
The principle of equal pay for women and men for work of equal value is already in force in Polish law. It stems from both the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Labor Code. However, in practice, a gender pay gap has been observed in Poland. The directive aims to strengthen this principle and eliminate gender pay discrimination.
Draft bill – new obligations
The draft law imposes a number of obligations on employers to increase pay transparency, including:
- Employers with at least 100 employees will be required to prepare a pay gap report. The frequency of reporting will depend on the size of the employer: every three years for employers with at least 100 employees, and annually for employers with at least 250 employees.
- Employers will be required to establish criteria for determining employee remuneration, salary levels and salary increases in an objective and gender-neutral manner, excluding any direct or indirect discrimination on grounds of gender.
- Employers will need to provide employees with easy access to the criteria used to determine their salaries, salary levels and salary increases.
- The employee will have the right to request information from the employer about his or her level of remuneration and, in addition, the average levels of remuneration, broken down by gender, for categories of employees performing the same work as he or she or work of equal value to his or her work.
In addition, sanctions are provided for failure to comply with obligations in the form of a fine ranging from PLN 2,000 to PLN 60,000.
Summary
Due to the fact that the implementation of Directive 2023/970 into the Polish legal system will entail new obligations for employers, it is worth analysing the issues of job evaluation in the organisation in advance and starting to prepare for the upcoming changes.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
The law is current as of December 4, 2025.
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