This page describes EU Directive 2023/970 and Romania's transposition bill (Bill L445/2026, currently under urgent-procedure review in the Senate). The transposition law has not yet been adopted in Romania — according to the Ministry of Labour, until adoption "the obligations established do not yet produce effects on employers." Information about deadlines and penalties may change before the final adopted version. Last updated: August 25, 2026.

Art. 9, 10, 13

Legal Guide

Remediation and joint assessment

What happens if reporting shows a gap of at least 5% in a category — step by step, from job evaluation to the mandatory joint pay assessment.

The foundation

Art. 4

Job evaluation

Every role evaluated on 4 criteria — skills, effort, responsibility, working conditions. This produces categories of work of equal value — the basis for everything that follows.

Your obligations, based on how many employees you have

Art. 5, 6, 7

Under 100 employees

Transparency in recruitment
Accessible pay-setting criteria
Information on request
No mandatory reporting (voluntary, if they choose to)

+ Art. 9

100–149 employees

Everything above
Reporting once every 3 years
First due: June 7, 2031

+ Art. 9

150–249 employees

Everything above
Reporting once every 3 years
First due: June 7, 2027

+ Art. 9, 10

250+ employees

Everything above
Annual reporting
First due: June 7, 2027
Art. 10 in effect — joint assessment if the gap remains unjustified

If a gap of ≥5% appears

1

Gap reporting

Calculated for each category from the foundation above (Art. 9).

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2

Check the 5% threshold

For each category, is the gap below or above 5%?

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Below 5%

No mandatory action. Good practice recommended, not a legal requirement.

Above 5%

Continues below ↓

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3

The 6-month window from the report's submission

The employer may justify AND/OR remediate, in parallel, through self-assessment. There is no formal approval of the justification within this window — no one accepts it "midway" (Art. 10(1)).

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4

At 6 months — the check

Is the gap still ≥5%, AND still unjustified, AND unremedied? (3 cumulative conditions, Art. 10(1))

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No

Justified or remedied — the cycle closes until the next reporting round.

Yes, all 3

Continues below ↓

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5

Joint pay assessment — MANDATORY

The reasons/justification are established JOINTLY with employee representatives (Art. 10(2)(d)) — this is the first point at which they formally enter the process, not before. Remediation within a reasonable period of time, not numerically defined — NOT another 6 months (Art. 10(4)). The labour inspectorate and/or the equality body may be invited to take part. The results go to the monitoring body (Art. 10(3)).

Note on company size: companies under 100 employees have no reporting obligation (Art. 9) — so structurally there can be no report to trigger a joint assessment through this mechanism. But, like every employer, they still have the Directive's other obligations, which don't depend on size: pay transparency in recruitment (Art. 5), accessible pay-setting criteria (Art. 6), employees' right to individual information (Art. 7) — none of that is optional, only reporting and the joint assessment are conditional on the threshold.

Companies with 250+ employees report annually, so they may face recurring joint assessments if the issue persists.

Until the Romanian law is adopted, according to the Ministry of Labour, no obligation yet produces effects on employers — regardless of size.

Have questions about the compliance cascade? We hold the relevant qualifications — a Labor Law Expert and an Equal Opportunities Expert — with direct experience running processes like this.

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