Pay transparency in Germany
No bill yet
Germany missed the 7 June 2026 transposition deadline. As of October 2026 no draft bill (Referentenentwurf) had been published. In its reply of 7 July 2026 (BT-Drs. 21/7026) the federal government said only that the lead ministry (BMBFSFJ) has prepared a bill and that it gave no timetable. The Entgelttransparenzgesetz of 2017 still applies.
Draft · legal review pending, not yet published.
Last checked: 10/11/2026. This overview is not legal advice. Laws change; the linked legal text is what counts.
- In force since
- –
- Job ads
- No rule yet. German law currently does not require any pay information in job ads or before the interview. Once transposed, the directive's minimum applies: candidates must receive the initial pay or pay range, in the ad or before the interview. Whether Germany will require the range in the ad itself is open until a draft bill is published.
- Asking about previous pay
- No legal ban yet
- Workers' right to information
- Under §§ 10–12 EntgTranspG, employees in establishments with more than 200 employees at the same employer can ask for the median pay of a comparison group of the other sex. The directive will extend this right to all employers.
- Pay reporting
- Currently, employers with more than 500 employees that must publish a management report (Lagebericht) under the German Commercial Code (HGB) must report on equality and equal pay (§ 21 EntgTranspG). Employers with more than 500 employees are only urged to run internal pay audits (§ 17); these are voluntary. The directive's reporting duty (250+ and 150–249 from June 2027, 100–149 from June 2031) has not yet been transposed.
- Penalties
- The EntgTranspG sets no fines; employees can sue for the pay difference. Sanctions under the transposing law are not yet specified.
Not verified: No official confirmation of anything after October 2026. One commercial source mentioned a cabinet decision in December 2026, but no official source confirms it. The BMBFSFJ press release date (7 Nov 2025) comes from secondary sources. The Gleichstellungakademie page is titled 'Oktober 2026' but shows no exact date.
22% of job ads in Germany state pay
22,246 of 99,921 ads on employer career sites and applicant tracking systems in the last month; 18% for tech-related titles (1,095 of 6,143). Measured on 11/11/2026 via Active Jobs DB; includes pay read from the ad text.
IT salaries in GermanySources
- Entgelttransparenzgesetz (EntgTranspG) · Bundesministerium der Justiz · 30/06/2017
- Antwort der Bundesregierung, BT-Drucksache 21/7026 (Bürokratiefolgen der Entgelttransparenzrichtlinie) · Deutscher Bundestag · 08/07/2026
- Kommission überreicht Abschlussbericht an Karin Prien · BMBFSFJ · 07/11/2025
- Entgelttransparenzgesetz: Aktueller Stand (Oktober 2026) · Gleichstellungakademie
- Umsetzung der EU-Entgelttransparenzrichtlinie in Deutschland: Stand, Fristen und Pflichten · entgelttransparenz-guide.de · 28/09/2026