Slovakia: New Equal Pay Regulation Proposed

The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic (Ministry of Labour) has published a draft of Act on the Application of the Principle of Equal Pay for Men and Women for Equal Work or Work of Equal Value and on change and supplement of other acts (Equal Pay Draft Act) and initiated the respective legislative procedure. It is proposed that the new regulation becomes effective on 1 June 2026.

The Equal Pay Draft Act is to transpose the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council No. 2023/970 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms (EU Directive) into Slovak legislation.

The Equal Pay Draft Act introduces new regulatory framework in relation to the principle of equal pay which will require employers to fulfill their new statutory obligations and to communicate with employees, employee representatives (if any) or authorities. The new legislation is fundamental overhaul of the current partial regulation.

Please see below the first insights and overview of core aspects of the Equal Pay Draft Act.

 

EQUAL PAY, EQUAL WORK & WORK OF EQUAL VALUE

Principle of Equal Pay

The Equal Pay Draft Act introduces the principle of equal pay which means that men and women have the right to equal pay for the equal work or work of equal value. The same-sex employees have this right as well.

The principle of equal pay is part of the broader principle of equal treatment and compliance with it means prohibition of discrimination.

Pay Structure

Employers are obliged to develop a pay structure that ensures compliance with the principle of equal pay.

Such pay structure must allow to assess whether employees perform the equal work or work of equal value which is determined on the objective and gender-neutral criteria. Such criteria must not be based on the sex (directly or indirectly) and must include factors relevant for a particular role (such as skills, responsibilities, etc) and fulfill further statutory requirements.

Employers must agree on the above-mentioned criteria with employee representatives (if any).

 

NEW RULES FOR ONBOARDING

The Equal Pay Draft Act involves new transparency rules which are to apply during the onboarding process, in particular:

• published job offers and role or job titles must be gender-neutral;
• the onboarding process must be handled non-discriminatory and in line with the principle of equal pay;
• job applicants have a right to request employers to provide them with information on pay or its range for the job they have applied for, and such pay must be determined on the objective and gender-neutral criteria;
• job applicants have also a right to request employers to provide them with information on pay based on the collective agreement (if applicable);
• employers must not request job applicants to provide them with information on pay at current or previous employers.

Employers are required to provide job applicants with the above-mentioned information regarding the pay that allows parties to exercise informed and transparent negotiations on the pay. Such information must be provided before job interviews or conclusion of an employment contract; this can be fulfilled by disclosure of information on pay directly in the published job offer.

 

NEW RULES FOR LABOUR RELATIONS

Transparent Pay Criteria

Employers are required to disclose to employees the criteria used to determine their pay, pay levels, and pay increases. These criteria must be objective and gender-neutral.

The obligation to disclose these criteria does not apply to employers with less than 50 employees.

Employer’s Information Obligations

The Equal Pay Draft Act regulates the right of employees to request information related to pay as well as procedural framework for handling such requests by employers.

Upon employee’s request, employers are obliged to provide written information on:

• employee’s pay level (Employee’s Pay Level);
• average level of pays, distributed according to gender, in the category of employees who perform equal work or work of equal value as the requesting employee (Average Level of Pays); this will not apply if the pay of another employee could be disclosed by provision of the requested information.

Employers are obliged to respond by 2 months from the receipt of employee’s request. Employees are entitled to subsequently request further explanations and details in relation to the above.

Employees are allowed to request the information mentioned above also via employee representatives or the Slovak National Centre for Human Rights (Slovenské národné stredisko pre ľudské práva).

Employers must obligatorily inform their employees once a year on their right to request the above-mentioned information as well as on the applicable procedure.

Duty of Confidentiality

Employers may require employees to maintain duty of confidentiality in relation to the Average Level of Pays with exception of exercising the employee’s right to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value. According to the explanatory memorandum to the Equal Pay Draft Act, this allows employers to protect sensitive information on pay structure and employees will be entitled to use the disclosed information only for purposes of their right to the equal pay.

Employers must not prevent employees from disclosing the amount of their pay level to another person.

Any contractual provisions that require employee to maintain the duty of confidentiality in relation to employee’s pay are void.

Employers’ Mandatory Reporting

The Equal Pay Draft Act introduces the following reporting obligations:

• employers, which employ at least 250 employees, must submit the report on pay differences (Report on Pay) (please see for more details below) for calendar year to the Ministry of Labour annually;
• employers, which employ from 100 up to 249 employees, must submit the Report on Pay to the Ministry of Labour every 3 years.

According to the Equal Pay Draft Act, the Report on Pay includes information on:

1. gender pay gap;
2. gender pay gap in additional components of pay;
3. median gender pay gap;
4. median gender pay gap in additional components of pay;
5. proportion of women and men receiving additional components of pay;
6. proportion of women and men in each quartile band of pay;
7. gender pay gap among employees based on employees’ categories with classification by regular component of pay and additional components of pay.

The employers specified above must negotiate the Report on Pay with employee representatives (if any).

The employer mandatorily discloses the information mentioned above under lit. g) to:

• its employees and employee representatives (if any);
• upon request, to the competent Labour Inspectorate or Slovak National Centre for Human Rights up to a period of precedent 4 years.

Please note that employees, employee representatives, Labour Inspectorate or Slovak National Centre for Human Rights may request the employer to provide subsequent additional explanations and details in relation to the disclosed information mentioned above under lit. g) and in this regard, corrective measures may be imposed on the employer.

Employers’ Voluntary Reporting

Employers, which employ less than 100 employees, may voluntarily submit the Report on Pay to the Ministry of Labour.

Employers may disclose the Report on Pay on their websites or by other means.

Joint Pay Assessment

Employers, which employ at least 100 employees, are obliged to conduct the joint pay assessment in cooperation with employee representatives (if any) if following three requirements are met:

1. the Report on Pay indicates that there is a pay gap at least 5% between men and women in any category of employees;
2. the employer did not justify this pay gap by objective and gender-neutral criteria;
3. the employer did not eliminate this pay gap by 6 months as of the Report on Pay.

The joint assessment must be conducted by 2 months as of the expiry of period under lit. c) above.

The main purpose of the joint pay assessment is to identify and deal with the pay gaps between men and women which are not based on objective and gender-neutral criteria.

The Equal Pay Draft Act governs the detailed steps of the joint pay assessment, such as collection of respective information, analysis, adoption of measures to deal with the pay gaps and evaluation of their effectiveness, etc.

Employers are obliged to disclose the joint pay assessment to employees and employee representatives (if any) and submit it to the Ministry of Labour as well. Upon request, the employer must submit the joint pay assessment also to the Labour Inspectorate and Slovak National Centre for Human Rights.

Right to Compensation & Limitation Period

The Equal Pay Draft Act introduces the right to compensation for harm (ujma) caused by breach of the principle of equal pay. Such compensation may involve:

• compensation for unpaid pay;
• compensation for lost opportunities;
• compensation for non-pecuniary harm (nemajetková ujma);
• compensation for harm caused by other factors;
• interest from unpaid remuneration.

The limitation period to claim this compensation is 3 years as of the date when entitled person gained the knowledge or could gain the knowledge on the breach of principle of equal pay.

 

SANCTIONS

If the employer repeatedly fails to comply with its mandatory reporting obligations (regarding the Report on Pay) towards the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Labour may impose a fine to the employer up to EUR4,000.

Also, for other breach of the new regulation, the Labour Inspectorate may impose a fine up to EUR100,000.

We hope this overview has provided you with valuable insight into the proposed regulation.

Should you have any questions regarding these changes, development of potential internal policy or notice to your employees or wish to discuss their potential impact on your HR or reporting processes, please do not hesitate to contact us.