The short answer
A five percent or higher gender pay gap signal within a job category does not disappear if you do nothing about it. It opens a process: a joint assessment of compensation within that category, together with worker representatives, within the applicable deadline. If that assessment does not take place, the signal remains open and continues to be part of your reporting until action is taken.
This is not about a penalty that automatically appears after a missed deadline. It is about a process you must initiate as soon as the calculation module or your own reporting shows a difference of five percent or more that is not supported by objective, gender-neutral criteria. What is concretely expected of you thereafter and within what timeframe depends on the text of the regulation and on how the competent supervisory authority in your Member State applies it.
When does a signal arise
A signal arises when the reporting on a job category shows an average compensation difference between women and men of at least five percent, and that difference cannot be traced back to criteria that you have established in advance as objective and gender-neutral. It is a mathematical result, not a judgment on whether the difference is justified. Whether a difference is justified is not determined by a tool, and we do not make a judgment on that either.
The category classification on which this signal is calculated depends on the job classification you prepared in advance. Those who do not have that classification in order often only discover when reporting that a signal exists, and then have less time to understand it. For more information on how that classification is developed, see the knowledge base with the classification explained step by step.
What the period following a signal entails
After a signal, a period follows in which you, together with worker representatives, assess compensation in the relevant category: which jobs fall under it, which criteria have been applied, and where the difference comes from. This assessment is a joint process, not a unilateral statement that you draw up and set aside. The regulation attaches a deadline to this; the exact implementation and the manner of recording vary depending on the situation and Member State, so for that we refer you to the regulation itself and, for your own case, to a lawyer or the competent supervisory authority.
During that period, it is not about concealing a figure, but about clarifying the underlying compensation structure. That is precisely where job classification and compensation policy come together: without a clear classification, there is little to fall back on when a category is called into question.
What happens if you do nothing
If the joint assessment does not take place, the signal does not disappear from your reporting. It remains visible, and the risk is that it will come up again in the next reporting round, possibly in the same or a worsening form. Additionally, the absence of an assessment may be relevant to how a supervisory authority views your file, although it is not for us to make a prediction about that or to estimate how likely that is.
What is certain: a signal that remains unaddressed makes it harder to tell a consistent story in response to a next information request from an employee or in a next reporting round. Employees have their own right to information, and an open signal can raise questions that you would prefer to answer sooner rather than later.
No penalty amount, but a process to work through
We deliberately do not mention amounts or hard deadlines that are not in the regulation itself. What the precise consequences in your Member State are if a signal remains unaddressed is a matter of national implementing legislation and the competent supervisory authority. Payria does not impose fines and does not judge whether a difference is justified; we structure the data and calculate the outcome, so you know where you stand before a signal emerges.
Those wishing to see whether their own job classification and reporting would already result in a signal can have this calculated in advance. For employers with at least one hundred employees, this is done via the calculation module; for those who are not yet sure whether that threshold applies, the compliance check answers in a few questions what applies to your organisation.
What you can prepare for now
The best preparation for a possible signal is not to wait for the signal itself, but to have the underlying structure in order: a job classification based on objective criteria, a remuneration policy that sets out those criteria, and documentation that you can immediately present in a joint assessment. How these elements are interconnected and where the associated templates and workflows come from, you can read on the page showing where the information comes from.
Do you want to know whether your organisation could currently face a signal, or would you prefer to first read through the background of the reporting obligation and the signal at your leisure? The quick scan and the knowledge base are free to consult without an account, and provide an initial, non-binding picture of where you stand.