Directive guide
Penalties and enforcement: what non-compliance actually costs
In short
1. Fines — national by design
The Directive does not set amounts; it obliges every member state to set penalties that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive, including fines (Art. 23). States differ in structure — flat ranges, per-infringement fines, percentages tied to payroll or turnover, escalation for repeat offences. Some add exclusion from public procurement for serious breaches. This page stays generic on purpose; the Romanian edition shows what a country-specific penalties page looks like.
2. Compensation — the uncapped track
A worker who suffered pay discrimination is entitled to full compensation: back pay, related bonuses and payments in kind, compensation for lost opportunities and non-material damage (Art. 16). Unlike a fine, this scales with the size and duration of the gap — a difference maintained for years across a category is a liability computed per person, per year.
3. The burden of proof — where cases are decided
Once the worker establishes facts from which discrimination may be presumed, the employer must prove there was none (Art. 18). The facts are now easy to establish: the averages from an information request or the published report. The only reliable defence is the boring one — objective criteria, documented job evaluation, contemporaneous justifications.
Non-compliance compounds
If the employer failed its transparency obligations, member states must ensure that failure counts against it in the proceedings — an incomplete report or a missing answer becomes evidence for the other side.
4. The informal penalty: the published number
Employer-level gap data becomes public and comparable. Candidates will filter by it, journalists will rank by it, and procurement teams increasingly ask for it. For most companies the market cost of a bad published number will exceed any fine — and unlike a fine, it cannot be appealed, only fixed in advance. Know your number first →
Frequently asked questions
How big are the fines?
National — each member state sets penalties that must be effective, proportionate and dissuasive, including fines (Art. 23). Some states scale them to workforce size or turnover, some fine per infringement. Check your national implementing law; Egalis country editions carry the local amounts.
What can a worker actually claim?
Full compensation: recovery of back pay and related bonuses or payments in kind, plus compensation for lost opportunities and non-material damage (Art. 16). There is no upper cap — the remedy must put the worker where they would have been without the discrimination.
What does the reversed burden of proof mean in practice?
Once a worker shows facts from which discrimination may be presumed — for example, the averages from an information request — it is for the employer to prove the difference is justified. If the employer ignored its transparency obligations, courts weigh that against it.
Who can bring a claim besides the worker?
Workers' representatives and equality bodies can act on behalf or in support of workers, including in collective claims (Art. 15) — one systematic gap can arrive as one collective case, not one brave plaintiff.