Draft law no. 944 transposing Directive (EU) 2023/970 – tabled in the Senate on 10 September 2026
The draft law (projet de loi) transposing the EU pay transparency directive was presented at the Council of Ministers on 10 September 2026 and tabled in the Senate the same day. Our June issue set out the ten main changes in the version circulated to the social partners on 4 June 2026. The text now before Parliament departs from that version on five points that matter to employers.
1. Companies of 50 to 99 employees : no more « reasonable period » to open negotiations. Where the pay gap indicator by category of employees (performing the same work, or work of equal value) shows a gap above the regulatory threshold that the employer cannot justify, the employer must open negotiations on workplace gender equality. The June draft gave it a « reasonable period » to do so. That wording has been dropped, and no decree will set a time limit in its place.
2. Requests for explanations extend to all declared indicators. In companies of at least 100 employees, employees, the works council (comité social et économique, CSE) and trade union delegates could only previously question the employer on the category pay gap indicator. They may now ask for details and explanations on all of the latest indicators the employer has declared.
3. The labour authorities may order negotiations to be opened. In a company of at least 100 employees, where the authorities find an average pay gap between women and men within an employee category that the employer cannot justify by objective, sex-neutral criteria and takes no steps to address, they may serve formal notice (mise en demeure) on the employer to open negotiations. The June draft contained no such power.
4. A decree will set the criteria that can justify a pay gap. The bill leaves it to a decree adopted after consultation of the Council of State (décret en Conseil d’État) to specify the objective, sex-neutral criteria capable of justifying a pay gap between women and men.
5. Sector-level agreements can set a categorisation method, not the categories. Sector-level (branch) negotiation may cover the drawing up of a method for categorising employees performing equal work or work of equal value. Under the June wording, the branch could establish the categorisation itself, which an employer could then adopt. That option has gone.
Next steps. The Government has chosen to have the Senate examine the text first, under the accelerated procedure (procédure accélérée), which limits the bill to a single reading in each chamber before a joint committee. No date has yet been set for the debates. Even once the law is passed, much will depend on the implementing decrees, which must set the nature of the indicators, the pay gap threshold that triggers negotiations and the criteria that can justify a gap.
