Pay Transparency: What Are Your New Rights as an Employee or Job Candidate?

In France, equal pay for women and men has been a legal right since 1972. Half a century later, it is still not a reality. The pay gap persists, in part because it remains invisible. It is difficult to challenge what cannot be seen, and that is precisely where pay transparency comes into play.

Behind this somewhat technical term lies something deeper than corporate compliance. For many women, money isn’t just a matter of comfort. It’s a matter of security and independence. Virginia Woolf wrote about this nearly a century ago: to think and live freely, one needs an income of one’s own and a room of one’s own. Knowing what you earn—and how you compare to others—is part of that autonomy. Pay transparency, therefore, is not just a matter of charts and metrics. It is a way to make long-proclaimed but still theoretical equality a reality.

In addition, there isthe Professional Equality Index, established by the law of September 5, 2018. Under the decree of January 8, 2019, companies with at least fifty employees must calculate and publish, on an annual basis, indicators measuring the pay gap between women and men. A score that is too low may expose the employer to a financial penalty.

In practical terms, this means you already have tools at your disposal. Your company’s index is, in principle, public. And employers must make the provisions of the Labor Code regardingequal pay for women and men available to their staff, or face the fine specified in Article R. 3222-3. These tools exist today. They are imperfect, but they can be put to use.

The most significant change for an employee would be a genuine right to information about their compensation. You could ask your employer not only about your own salary level, but also about the average compensation levels—broken down by gender—for employees who perform the same work as you or work of equal value. This comparison, which is currently difficult to make, would become a right.

The text also provides for new disparity indicators—more detailed than the current index—and a corrective mechanism: if the disparity exceeds a certain threshold, the company would be required to explain the situation and, if necessary, take corrective action, particularly through collective bargaining.

Job applicants have not been overlooked. The directive stipulates that information on compensation must be provided before the interview, and, most importantly, that an employer may no longer ask you about your salary history—a practice that contributes to perpetuating inequalities from one job to the next. Again, these rules will not take effect until French law is enacted—and may be phased in gradually, as the preliminary draft leaves it to a decree to set the effective date.

If you suspect that you are being paid less than a colleague for comparable work, your first instinct should be to think in terms of the value of the work rather than the job title. Gather any documentation that supports your case:

Check your company's profile. Request the information that the employer is already required to provide.

If you're looking for a job, keep in mind that the trend is shifting in your favor. The trend is toward giving candidates more transparency about compensation and limiting questions about your past salary.

No single step can guarantee a result on its own, and each situation must be assessed on a case-by-case basis. But knowing your rights is already a step toward taking action rather than simply enduring the situation.