The ban on asking a candidate what they currently earn, or what they previously earned, applies throughout the European Union. The directive prescribes this as a minimum standard. What differs is how each member state has incorporated this into national legislation: who is precisely bound by the ban, whether it also applies to an external recruitment agency acting on your behalf, and how a supervisory authority handles it if it happens anyway.
For a company that only recruits in the Netherlands, this is an academic question. For an installation company with a branch in Germany, an HR manager who posts a vacancy in multiple countries at the same time, or an office organization working with a pan-European recruitment agency, it is a practical one. The vacancy text can be the same everywhere, but the interview does not necessarily have to be.
What the directive does and does not establish
The directive prohibits employers from asking applicants about their current compensation or their compensation history, and requires that information an employer already has about a candidate's compensation is not used to determine the offer. This is the floor to which all member states must comply. A member state may go further than that floor, for example by extending the ban to the assessment phase, or by explicitly naming recruiters in the statutory text alongside the employer itself. Whether and how a country does this is set out in the national transposition law, not in the directive.
This means the question 'is this allowed' can have a slightly different answer in one member state than in another, even though the starting point is the same. For the exact wording in a specific country, the national statutory text or a local lawyer is the appropriate source, not a general comparison.
Why the difference per country arises
The difference is rarely in the principle and more often in its margins. Some member states already had a similar ban before the directive, for example in a specific sector or through case law, and have aligned the new rule with it. Other member states are introducing the ban for the first time and still have to decide how strictly they formulate it: does it apply only to the employer, or also to everyone conducting a conversation on the employer's behalf. The question of who supervises and how that supervisory authority assesses a violation is also up to each member state.
Furthermore, the pace of transposition varies. A country that has met the deadline already has the text in place; a country that is still working on it sometimes operates with a bill that may change before it is adopted. For those recruiting in multiple countries at the same time, this means that the rules for one location are already established while for another they are not yet final.
What this means for recruitment across borders
The practical consequence is not that you need a different recruitment policy per country. Most organizations choose to apply the strictest standard that exists within the company internally, and apply it everywhere. This prevents a recruiter from having to remember per country which question is and is not permitted there. It is something to do consciously, not as an assumption.
Where things more often go wrong is not with the direct question 'what do you earn now', but with the indirect variant: a question about desired salary that effectively has the same result, or a question posed via an external agency without the employer having visibility into it. With recruitment across borders, the latter is a realistic point of attention, because the client does not always conduct the conversation themselves.
What you can clarify in advance
For anyone who wants to know how the rules are laid down in a specific country, the national implementation law is the starting point, supplemented by the guidance of the competent supervisory authority in that country. A general comparison between countries is a starting point to see where attention should be directed, not a replacement for it.
In Payria's knowledge base, for each topic, we have established what the directive itself regulates and what has been left to the member states, with the reference to the official text included. That is a good starting point to see whether something is already settled or still in flux. review the knowledge base by topic provides an initial overview.
If you want to quickly know whether this applies to your situation, for example because you are recruiting in multiple EU countries, the free check provides an initial direction. see in a few questions where you stand takes a few minutes and does not require an account. How that result came about is explained on the page that shows where the information comes from: how Payria compiles the information.
If you have a question that is not directly in the knowledge base, there is a good chance it has already been asked. the overview of frequently asked questions covers, among other things, how country-specific differences are tracked as soon as legislation changes.
This article describes how the directive and the national implementation relate to each other, not how that plays out for your own recruitment practice in a specific country. For that assessment, the national legislation or a lawyer in that jurisdiction is the appropriate resource.