Pay transparency is about to be a hot-button topic for HR and compliance teams across the globe, and employers will need to educate themselves to stay out of legal hot water.
As of 2025, there are pay gap reporting requirements across 43 countries and 48 jurisdictions, including the EU’s pay transparency directive, which will go into effect in 2027. This doesn’t completely include the 14 states with pay transparency laws in the U.S., four of which go into effect this year. Every requirement looks a little different, but at the core, these laws are in place to increase awareness of pay discrepancies and close stubborn gender pay gaps. Given that the U.S. pay gap has only decreased by two cents in over 20 years (it sits at 82 cents for every man’s dollar), it’s clear that pay transparency legislation has its work cut out, and so do employers.
