New Law Will Let Dutch Employees Know What Their Colleagues Are Paid From 2027
From 2027, a new law will let Dutch workers ask what colleagues in similar roles earn, force salary ranges in job ads, and make companies tackle gender pay gaps.
From the start of 2027, workers in the Netherlands are set to gain a right that many have long been curious about: the ability to find out how much their colleagues are paid. The change is part of a new law implementing a European directive on pay transparency, aimed at closing the gap between what men and women earn.
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What is changing
The new rules come from the EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive 2023/970), adopted in May 2023. Its goal is to enforce the principle of “equal pay for equal or equivalent work” between men and women, a principle that has long existed in law but, in practice, is still not always met.
For individual employees, the most eye-catching change is the right to information. From 2027, workers will be able to request the average salary of colleagues doing the same or equivalent work, broken down by gender. The employer must provide that information within two months. Job applicants gain rights too: vacancies will have to state the salary or salary range, and employers will no longer be allowed to ask candidates about their salary history.
Employers will also have to make the criteria for setting pay, and for salary growth, objective, gender-neutral and clear, for example by publishing them on a company intranet.
Reporting on the pay gap
Larger employers face an additional duty. According to the Dutch government’s business portal, companies with more than 100 employees will have to show, at fixed recurring moments, how large the pay differences between men and women are within their organisation. These reports must be shared with employees and the authorities.
If the figures reveal a pay gap of 5 percent or more within a group of comparable jobs that cannot be objectively explained, the employer is obliged to carry out a joint pay assessment together with worker representatives, such as the works council, and to fix the gap, typically within six months.
Why the directive exists
Across the European Union, women earn on average about 13 percent less per hour than men, meaning women earn roughly 87 cents for every euro a man earns. The Netherlands sits close to that EU average, while the smallest gaps are found in Belgium and Luxembourg. According to the European Commission, one of the main reasons the gap persists is a lack of transparency: as long as employees do not know how salaries are determined, unjustified differences stay under the radar.
A Dutch delay
There is one complication. EU member states were supposed to translate the directive into national law by 7 June 2026, but the Netherlands will not make that deadline and is aiming for 1 January 2027 instead. The European Commission has indicated that it will not accept a postponement, which some tax and legal advisers say could mean the reporting obligation for the largest employers ends up applying retroactively to the 2026 calendar year.
The Dutch implementing law, the Wet implementatie Richtlijn loontransparantie mannen en vrouwen, still has to pass through parliament. A draft was put out for public consultation in 2025, and the Council of State issued its advice on the proposal in April 2026. The exact start date will only be final once both the Tweede Kamer and the Eerste Kamer have approved the bill.
Many employers are not waiting
Whatever the exact date, many Dutch employers are already moving. According to a recent survey by the Academy for Labour Market Communication, 61 percent of Dutch organisations already state a salary in their job vacancies, and another 6 percent expect to do so soon. Advisers say companies are wise to prepare now, by mapping out how salaries are set and checking their job-evaluation systems, rather than waiting for the law to take effect.
For employees, the bottom line is that the long-standing taboo around discussing salaries in the Netherlands is, by law, about to weaken considerably.