The right to pay information — Art. 7, in practice

Two numbers, both anchored in the worker’s own category: their individual pay level, and the average pay levels — broken down by sex — for workers doing the same work or work of equal value. That is exactly the information that reveals a systematic difference without exposing any individual colleague’s salary.

The answer is only as good as the classification behind it. To produce a lawful answer you need: categories of work of equal value built on objective criteria (job evaluation), current pay levels per category, and a channel that tracks the 2-month clock per request. Employers who compute this ad-hoc per request tend to produce inconsistent answers — which are themselves evidence in a dispute.

Where a category is so small that an average would effectively disclose a colleague’s salary, member states may provide that only workers’ representatives, the labour inspectorate or the equality body receive the information; they then advise the worker on a possible claim without disclosing individual pay (Art. 12(3)). The safeguard is optional: check whether your national law uses it — where it does not, the worker receives the averages directly. Refusal is not available to the employer in either case.

Workers cannot be prevented from disclosing their pay for the purpose of enforcing equal pay (Art. 7(5)). Existing confidentiality clauses are unenforceable for that purpose. Combined with the right to averages, the practical effect is simple: pay differences that could once rely on silence now surface — the only durable strategy is to fix them before they are asked about.