Pay transparency: what you can request from your employer from 1 November
Employment lawyer Marios Karydis explains information rights before and after hiring, written requests, the two-month response period and protection against retaliation.
By Marios Karydis — Lawyer admitted to practise before Greece’s Supreme Court, Employment-law specialist
Written: 25 October 2026 · Published by AppiSToS: 27 October 2026.
From 1 November 2026, pay ceases to be a closely guarded secret. Law 5316/2026, transposing Directive (EU) 2023/970, gives employees and job applicants specific rights to information about remuneration. The new obligations apply to all employers, regardless of workforce size.
The law aims to make differences between men’s and women’s pay for the same work or work of equal value visible and therefore open to scrutiny. In practice, the rights benefit every employee seeking to know whether they are paid fairly. The relevant provisions were incorporated into the Labour Code (Presidential Decree 62/2025) and apply from 1 November 2026 under Article 48(2) of Law 5316/2026. Here is what you can request, when and how.
Before you are hired
The law gives applicants three new tools:
- Pay information before the interview. You can request the starting pay or pay range for the position, based on objective criteria, and information about the applicable collective agreement. If there is no interview, the information is provided before the employment contract is concluded.
- No questions about previous pay. Employers may not request your pay history in the application or interview, preventing low past earnings from following you into a new job.
- Neutral advertisements (Labour Code Article 41). Job advertisements and selection procedures must not refer to gender or marital status.
While you are employed
The main new right is a written information request. You can ask your employer for:
- your own pay level; and
- average pay levels, broken down by gender, for the category of workers doing the same work or work of equal value.
The employer must respond within two months and inform staff annually of this right (Labour Code Article 56A). You may also submit the request through workers’ representatives or the Greek Ombudsman. An employer may refuse if a request is manifestly disproportionate or abusive, for example because it is repeated. You may then seek the information through the Ombudsman, who assesses whether the request is justified.
What you cannot request: an individual colleague’s salary. Information is provided as averages to protect personal data. Additional safeguards apply where even averages could reveal the pay of an identifiable worker.
Two further practical changes:
- Pay-secrecy clauses no longer bind you when you disclose your pay to pursue equal pay, even if a contract or workplace rule prohibits disclosure.
- Protection against retaliation. An employer must not treat you adversely for pursuing equal pay through a complaint, report or proceedings before an authority or court (Labour Code Article 44).
If you identify discrimination
The law strengthens an employee’s position in an equal-pay dispute:
- Shifted burden of proof. Once facts indicating possible discrimination are raised, the employer must prove there was no discrimination. Failure to comply with transparency duties counts against the employer unless the breach was manifestly unintentional and minor (Labour Code Article 54). A court may also order disclosure of evidence held by the employer, including confidential material.
- Full compensation without an upper limit. This includes pay differences and interest, lost income and career opportunities, and non-material harm (Labour Code Article 53).
- The limitation period runs from knowledge. It does not begin before you knew, or could reasonably have been expected to know, of the breach. There is a rebuttable presumption that you learned of it when receiving pay information or when the employment relationship ended. Former employees also have access to judicial protection.
- Where to turn. A dedicated equal-treatment and equal-pay department is established within the Labour Inspectorate. The Inspectorate may order an employer to end a breach, with a recurring fine for each three-month period of non-compliance. The Greek Ombudsman is the equality body and accepts complaints, including an employer’s failure to answer a request.
Practical steps
- Submit the request in writing by email or a document formally registered on receipt, keeping evidence of the date.
- Note the deadline: two months from submission.
- Keep copies of your contract, payslips and correspondence.
- If no answer is provided or it is incomplete, contact the Ombudsman or Labour Inspectorate and seek legal advice on next steps.
A simple request template
To [employer’s name]
Under Law 5316/2026, please inform me in writing of: (a) my individual pay level and (b) average pay levels, broken down by gender, for the category of workers performing the same work or work of equal value as mine.
[Name, position, date, signature]
Important: 1 November is not a filing deadline. It is the date from which these rights can be exercised. Mandatory gender pay-gap reports concern employers with at least 100 workers; the largest employers (250+) submit their first report by 7 June 2027.
Marios Karydis
Lawyer admitted to practise before Greece’s Supreme Court — Employment-law specialist
55 Agiou Fanouriou, Vyronas · 695 564 8719 · marioskarydes2@gmail.com
This article is for information and does not replace individual legal advice.
English translation of the Greek edition · Read in Greek