Production: By Europod, in collaboration with Sphera Network.

EUobserver maintains an editorial partnership with Europod to co-publish the podcast series Briefed hosted by Lea Marchal. The podcast appears on all major platforms.

Find the full transcript below:

Has it ever occurred that after months in your position you learn a colleague earns more for the same role? If you are a woman the odds are higher that the answer is yes.

Yet the European Union aims to address this through the Pay Transparency Directive now required across Europe.

Is the impact genuine? What shifts will appear in your nation?

Women in Spain typically earn 20 percent less than male counterparts. Public sector roles narrow this to 8.8 percent while private sector figures reach around 30 percent meaning male peers may earn roughly a third more for comparable tasks.

These latest numbers come from the Spanish outlet El Salto.

Earlier in February network colleagues observed that women receive four thousand seven hundred euros less annually based on 2023 data from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics.

Spain is not alone. In 2024 Eurostat measured the gap in average yearly earnings between women and men throughout EU nations with clear outcomes.

The average European gender pay gap stands at 11 percent. In places such as Estonia the Czech Republic and Austria it exceeds 17 percent.

Strong performers include Belgium with a gap below one percent and Luxembourg where women earn 0.8 percent more than men.

For the rest what steps follow?

In 2023 the EU passed a pay transparency directive to shrink the gender pay gap and related issues.

What does the measure require?

Pay will cease to be a forbidden topic.

As noted by Italian outlet VD News another Sphera Network member the process begins during job searches.

Employers must list pay ranges for all openings and cannot inquire about prior compensation to prevent ongoing inequities tied to gender.

Once employed staff may request average pay figures by gender for equal value work within the firm.

Employers must also share the objective nondiscriminatory standards applied to determine pay.

Exact colleague salaries stay private so only averages appear.

What occurs if bias shows?

When an unexplained average gap of five percent or more appears between women and men firms receive six months to correct it or face fines.

Since 7 June member states should have passed laws to enforce these rules. Have they?

Only a few nations have begun applying the directive including Belgium with the EU's smallest gap and Poland at four percent.

In Italy Slovakia and Lithuania fresh laws recently took effect. Most remaining states have issued draft rules or are updating current ones.

They run slightly behind yet progress appears steady.

Over coming years this framework should aid women in the workforce.

Implementation alone will not resolve the full gap. As economist Natalia Arias Perez told El Salto pay bias for equal work and skills forms only part of the problem so further steps are essential for real equality.

These include ending involuntary part-time work among women addressing bias and penalties around motherhood and caregiving handling wage add-ons often given to men and boosting female entry into better paid fields.