Question and answer

What triggers a joint pay assessment?

By Mihai Postolache, founder of Egalis · Updated 26 September 2026

In short

Three conditions together (Art. 10), for employers that report under Art. 9 (100+ employees): a mean gender pay gap of at least 5% in any category of workers, which the employer has not justified by objective, gender-neutral criteria, and has not remedied within 6 months of the reporting date. All three must hold — a justified or promptly remedied difference does not trigger it.

In detail

The joint pay assessment is carried out together with workers' representatives and is a documented review with seven elements fixed by Art. 10(2): among them pay levels per category, the proportion of women and men, the reasons for the differences, pay improvements after return from maternity, paternity, parental or carers' leave, and the measures that will close the unjustified ones.

The 5% threshold is judged per category of work of equal value — not on the company-wide average. A small overall gap can hide categories far above 5%.

The practical defence is boring and effective: objective pay criteria, documented job evaluation, and a monthly watch on every category so nothing reaches the report unjustified.

More questions with direct answers: the FAQ.

Next step

Start is free under 50 employees; from 50 up, 14 free days, no card. Your data: full export, any time.

Create account See pricing

What triggers a joint pay assessment?

In detail

Create your account