May I prohibit employees from discussing their salary?

A confidentiality clause on pay conflicts with the right to information

No, a general ban on discussing your own salary with colleagues sits uneasily with the direction the regulations are moving in. The directive gives employees the right to request what the average remuneration level is within their category of equal work, broken down by gender. That right means little if employees cannot also compare what they earn with each other — a confidentiality clause directly undermines the purpose for which that right to information exists.

For Dutch employers, the situation currently lies between two stools. The bill that would anchor this right to information in Dutch law is still being considered by the Second Chamber and therefore does not yet apply to private employers. A contractual confidentiality clause on salary is not currently expressly forbidden by law for them. For employers in the public and semi-public sector, the situation is different: because the deadline for transposing the directive has passed, they may already be directly bound by the directive. And courts are required to interpret existing national law, including the Equal Treatment of Men and Women Act, as far as possible in light of the directive.

Where this follows from: Article 7 of the directive and the legal status

The core of the answer comes from Article 7(1) of Directive (EU) 2023/970, which gives employees the right to request the average remuneration level per category, broken down by gender — a right that a confidentiality clause on their own pay would obstruct. That this right does not yet apply as an enforceable obligation for private employers follows from the status of the bill implementing the pay transparency directive: submitted on 21 May 2026, not yet considered in plenary and therefore not yet in force. That courts must meanwhile already interpret the law in line with the directive and that the public sector may already be directly bound follows from the expiry of the transposition deadline of 7 June 2026.