Pay transparency is not a technical exercise, nor a box-ticking compliance requirement. It is a structural reform of the European labour market. This was the core message of Barbara Helfferich (Gender Five Plus / Eurocadres) at the Eurocadres Congress in Paris in October 2025, where the focus was on the role of trade unions representing professionals and managers in implementing the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
The evidence is unequivocal: the gender pay gap widens at higher occupational levels. Across seven EU Member States analysed – Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Hungary – the overall gender pay gap increases significantly among professionals and managers, reaching up to 28% in Germany and exceeding 20% in France and Italy. These are precisely the pay gaps that are most hidden, most normalised, and most difficult to challenge.
Discover here the details of Barbara’s work presented in Paris, and here the collective report.
No data, no accountability
Two-thirds of the gender pay gap in Europe remains “unexplained”. Not because the causes are unknown, but because they are not visible. Discretionary bonuses, opaque benefits, biased job evaluation systems and persistent stereotypes – think manager, think male – continue to shape pay outcomes, particularly in high-skilled and leadership roles.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive directly addresses this structural opacity by shifting power towards workers and their representatives. Its key provisions include:
- gender-neutral job advertisements and pay ranges;
- the right to access pay information;
- mandatory annual pay reporting;
- joint pay assessments when gaps exceed 5%;
- reversal of the burden of proof;
- explicit recognition of intersectional discrimination.
Transparency is not just about knowing more – it is about enabling collective action.
What works: lessons from across Europe
The comparative research presented by Helfferich – combining desk research, stakeholder interviews and EU-level data from Eurostat, EIGE and Eurofound – shows that pay transparency delivers results when it is embedded in strong equality frameworks and social dialogue structures.
In Belgium, mandatory pay audits and close cooperation with trade unions have helped expose gender pay gaps at managerial level that would otherwise remain invisible.
In Finland, tripartite equality programmes and sectoral pay-mapping tools developed by Akava have strengthened transparency for highly educated professionals.
In France, the Gender Equality Index has introduced public accountability, while trade unions negotiate transparency clauses covering bonuses and variable pay for managers.
In Spain, equality plans and pay registers are actively monitored by trained union equality delegates, reinforcing gender-neutral job evaluation practices.
These examples demonstrate that transparency works best where it is institutionalised, negotiated and enforced.
Trade unions as drivers of change for professionals and managers
In more challenging implementation contexts – such as Germany, Italy and Hungary – trade unions are developing innovative approaches: awareness campaigns empowering individuals to claim their rights, legal support mechanisms, gender equality certification schemes, sectoral guidelines for fair job evaluation, and alliances with civil society organisations to monitor transposition of the Directive.
For professionals and managers, pay transparency also represents a cultural shift. It challenges the idea of pay as a purely individual and confidential matter and reframes it as a collective, negotiable and political issue. In this sense, transparency enables a move from data to dialogue.
Challenges ahead
Significant obstacles remain. Small and medium-sized enterprises often lack the capacity to conduct pay audits. Managerial pay structures are complex and include bonuses and benefits that are difficult to compare. Self-employed and platform workers are largely excluded. And gender stereotypes continue to shape perceptions of value and leadership.
Yet none of these challenges justify delay. On the contrary, they underscore the central role of trade unions as key actors in implementation, with responsibilities to:
- integrate pay transparency into collective agreements;
- monitor pay reporting and support joint pay assessments;
- raise awareness and drive cultural change in workplaces.
Transparency, equality and economic resilience
Pay transparency is not only a matter of fairness; it delivers measurable economic and social benefits. Research shows that a 1% reduction in the gender pay gap can generate a 0.1% increase in EU GDP. Transparency strengthens trust, improves retention, and contributes to more resilient and productive organisations.
As Barbara Helfferich underlined in Paris, equality is not a checkbox. It is a process that requires accountability, empowerment and solidarity. If fully implemented, the EU Pay Transparency Directive has the potential to set a global standard. But only if transparency becomes power – and power becomes change.