An employee asks about average compensation — what must I provide?

The average remuneration level, broken down by gender

According to the directive, an employee is entitled to information on the average remuneration level for their category of work of equal value, broken down by gender (Article 7(1) of Directive (EU) 2023/970). This is not about individual salaries of colleagues, but about an average per category: what do men in that group earn on average, and what do women. This right has no threshold based on company size — unlike the reporting obligation and remuneration evaluation, it applies to every employer, regardless of the number of employees.

For Dutch private employers, this right is not yet anchored in law. It does appear in draft bill 36949, but that draft bill is still under consideration by the Second Chamber and the obligations from it do not yet apply. An employee can submit such a request, but there is currently no legal obligation to respond — that obligation only arises when the law comes into force. For employers in the public and semi-public sector, it may be different: they may already be directly bound by the directive, because the transposition deadline has passed. Anyone who wants to prepare for this now will in any case need a job classification based on objective criteria to determine 'work of equal value' and the corresponding categories — that is work that cannot be completed in a week.

Where this follows from: Article 7 and draft bill 36949

The right itself is set out in Article 7(1) of Directive (EU) 2023/970. The fact that this right does not yet apply in the Netherlands for private employers follows from the status of draft bill 36949: it has been submitted to the Second Chamber, but there has been no plenary debate and no vote, let alone consideration by the First Chamber. As long as the law has not come into force, the directive does not have direct effect between a private employer and their employee.