Pay transparency rules in Czechia
Not yet. Czechia missed the deadline. The government's Labour Code amendment reached the Chamber of Deputies on 8 September 2026 and targets 1 January 2027, with reporting and the pay-information right deferred to 2028. One piece already bites: since June 2025 employers cannot stop staff discussing their pay.
The Czech bill reaches Parliament
What happened
On 8 September 2026 the government sent its pay-transparency bill to the Czech Parliament, where it is numbered print 300. Members of Parliament have been given the text. They have not held their first debate on it yet.
What it means for you
Most rules are planned to start on 1 January 2027. You would need a written pay system. You would have to tell candidates the minimum pay before they start, and you could not ask about their past pay. Pay-gap reporting and the right of staff to ask what others earn are planned for 1 January 2028. One rule already applies: you cannot stop staff talking about their pay.
Dates to know
- 1 January 2027Most rules are planned to start.
- 1 January 2028Pay-gap reporting and the staff right to ask about pay are planned to start.
- 2031First pay-gap reports from employers with 100 to 149 staff (proposed).
Source: Poslanecka snemovna Parlamentu Ceske republiky. We check this page every week. Last checked .
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970) is a European law that requires employers to be open about pay and to close the gender pay gap. It forces employers to share salary information with job candidates and staff, bans asking applicants about their pay history, and makes larger employers report on the difference between what they pay women and men. Where an unexplained gap of 5% or more shows up, the employer must work with staff representatives to investigate and fix it.
Each EU country had until 7 June 2026 to write these rules into its own national law. Czechia has not yet done so: its government has approved a bill, but Parliament has not passed it. Until that bill is passed and takes effect, the Directive's specific duties are not yet legally binding on employers operating in Czechia, though a partial pay-secrecy ban already applies.
Current status: a government bill, not yet law
Czechia has not transposed the Directive. The government's Labour Code amendment reached the Chamber of Deputies on 8 September 2026 and awaits its first reading; most rules are planned to start on 1 January 2027.
Czechia missed the EU-wide transposition deadline of 7 June 2026. On 26 March 2026 the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MPSV) published a draft amendment to the Labour Code (zakoník práce) that would transpose Directive (EU) 2023/970, taking a deliberately 'minimalist' approach that aims to meet the EU minimum without adding extra burden. An updated text followed on 16 July 2026, and on 31 August 2026 the government approved the bill. The Ministry says the approved version softens the level of new regulation compared with the text negotiated by the previous government. The bill now has to pass both chambers of Parliament and be signed into law, and as of 21 September 2026 none of that has happened. The plan is for most obligations to take effect on 1 January 2027, with gender pay-gap reporting starting in 2028. None of the new duties are legally binding yet. Because the deadline has passed, the European Commission can open infringement proceedings against Czechia, but that does not create direct obligations for private employers.
What will change for employers when it passes
Employers will have to build a documented pay system, sort jobs into value-based groups, tell candidates the minimum pay on offer before the job starts, stop asking about salary history, answer staff pay-information requests, and (if large enough) report their gender pay gap.
The government bill would require every employer, regardless of size, to create and maintain a documented, non-discriminatory remuneration system (systém odměňování), set out in an internal rule or a collective agreement, that sorts roles into groups of work of equal value, judged on objective criteria such as complexity, responsibility, effort and working conditions. Before the employment relationship begins, employers must be able to show they told the candidate the minimum pay and other monetary or non-monetary benefits on offer. The job advert is one way to do this, but the information can also be given during the selection process or at signing. Employers may no longer ask a candidate about their previous pay, and these rules also cover the Czech agreements to perform work (DPP) and work activity (DPČ). Existing staff gain the right to ask in writing for information about their own pay and the average pay, broken down by sex, of staff in the same group of work, with a response due within two months, and employers must remind staff of this right at least once a year. These are new, more structured duties than current Czech law and will need preparation before the 2027 start date.
Pay-gap reporting and joint pay assessment
Reporting applies only to employers with 100 or more staff: 250+ report annually, 100 to 249 every three years. Employers with 150+ report first in 2028; 100 to 149 in 2031. An unexplained gap of 5% or more that is not fixed within six months triggers a detailed pay assessment with staff representatives.
Under the bill approved by the government on 31 August 2026, regular pay-gap reporting applies only to employers with 100 or more employees. Employers with at least 250 employees report every year, and employers with 100 to 249 employees report once every three years. Reporting starts in 2028 for employers with 150 or more employees and in 2031 for those with 100 to 149. The published draft set the first deadlines at 30 April 2028 (covering 2027) and 30 April 2031 (covering 2030). Employers with fewer than 100 employees have no reporting duty. To limit paperwork, the Ministry will also use data the state already collects through the single monthly employer report (JMHZ), and will publish only anonymised aggregate figures. A gap between women's and men's average hourly pay does not by itself breach the law. The employer must carry out a detailed pay assessment, discussed with employee representatives, only if a gap of at least 5% appears in a group of work, cannot be explained by objective and non-discriminatory reasons, and is not corrected within six months. These thresholds and dates can still change in Parliament.
Penalties and enforcement
The draft sets fines up to 1,000,000 CZK for the most serious breaches. A separate, already-in-force ban on pay-secrecy clauses (since 1 June 2025) carries fines up to 400,000 CZK. The Ombudsman would become the equality body.
The draft proposes tiered fines enforced by the State Labour Inspection Office (Státní úřad inspekce práce): up to 1,000,000 CZK for the most serious failures, such as not building a pay system, withholding pay information from staff, or skipping required pay-gap reporting, with lower tiers around 200,000 to 400,000 CZK. Separately, a measure that is already law - the Labour Code 'flexi-amendment' in force since 1 June 2025 - bans confidentiality clauses that stop employees discussing their pay, with fines up to 400,000 CZK. The draft would also designate the Public Defender of Rights (the Ombudsman) as Czechia's equal-treatment body, able to assist and represent workers in pay-discrimination disputes. All figures from the unpassed draft are provisional.
Hiring in Czechia?
What Teamed handles for you in Czechia
Teamed is the legal employer in Czechia, so the pay-secrecy ban in force since June 2025 is ours to meet, and the pending Labour Code duties will be too.
These sit with us
- A written pay system and equal-value job groups
- Minimum pay disclosed before the job starts
- No questions about a candidate's previous pay
- Written pay requests answered within two months
- Pay-gap reporting at 100 staff, phased to 2031
You keep
The role, the budget and the pay decision. Your people still report to you.
The bill is not law yet. Most duties are planned for 1 January 2027, reporting and pay requests 2028. We apply them then.
At a glance
| Pay shown in job ads | Proposed, not required in ads |
|---|---|
| Salary-history question banned | Proposed (pay secrecy already banned) |
| Gender pay-gap reporting from | 100 or more, phased (proposed) |
| First report due | 2028 (proposed) |
| Penalties | CZK 400,000 now; up to CZK 1m proposed |
Key figures
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Transposition status | Not transposed; bill deposited in the Chamber of Deputies on 8 September 2026 as snemovni tisk 300, awaiting first reading; deadline missed (source) |
| Instrument | Draft amendment to the Labour Code (novela zákoníku práce) transposing Directive (EU) 2023/970 (source) |
| Planned effective date | 1 January 2027 for most provisions (draft, not yet law) (source) |
| Pay in job ads | Proposed: employer must tell candidates the minimum pay and benefits before the job starts (in the advert, during selection or at signing) (source) |
| Salary history ban | Proposed in draft (from 2027); related pay-secrecy clause ban already in force since 1 June 2025 (source) |
| Reporting threshold | 100+ only: 250+ annually; 100-249 every 3 years; under 100 exempt (government bill) (source) |
| First report due | 2028 for 150+ employees; 2031 for 100-149 (draft set 30 April of each year) (source) |
| Joint pay assessment trigger | Unjustified gap of at least 5% in a group of work, not fixed within 6 months (source) |
| Penalties (draft) | Up to 1,000,000 CZK for the most serious breaches (draft) (source) |
| Pay-secrecy ban (in force) | Confidentiality clauses on pay banned since 1 June 2025; fines up to 400,000 CZK (source) |
| Equality body | Public Defender of Rights (Ombudsman) to become equal-treatment body (draft) (source) |
Frequently asked questions
Has Czechia passed the EU Pay Transparency Directive into law?
No. As of 21 September 2026 Czechia has only a government bill. The Ministry of Labour published a draft Labour Code amendment on 26 March 2026, the government approved it on 31 August 2026, and it was deposited in the Chamber of Deputies on 8 September 2026 as print 300, where it awaits a first reading. Czechia missed the 7 June 2026 EU deadline. The plan is for most rules to start on 1 January 2027, with reporting and the pay-information right deferred to 2028.
Do employers in Czechia have to publish salaries in job ads yet?
Not yet, and the bill would not strictly require it in the advert. Employers would have to tell candidates the minimum pay and benefits on offer before the job starts, which they can do in the advert, during selection or at signing. This is planned for 1 January 2027 but is not in force while the bill is still before Parliament.
Can employers in Czechia ask candidates about their previous salary?
The draft would ban this from 2027. Separately, a related protection is already in force: since 1 June 2025 employers cannot use confidentiality clauses to stop staff discussing their own pay, with fines up to 400,000 CZK. The full salary-history-question ban becomes binding only when the new law takes effect.
When is the first gender pay-gap report due in Czechia?
Under the government bill, employers with 150 or more employees report first in 2028 (the published draft set 30 April 2028, covering 2027). Employers with 100 to 149 employees start in 2031. Employers with 250 or more report every year after that, and those with 100 to 249 every three years. Employers under 100 are exempt. These dates could still change in Parliament.
If we use an Employer of Record in Czechia, who handles these duties?
The EOR, as the legal employer, carries the statutory pay-transparency duties: the pay system, disclosures, reporting and so on. The client should provide accurate role and pay data. Since the law is still a draft, the practical task now is getting clean pay data ready, not filing reports.
Pay transparency is moving at different speeds across the EU. When Teamed is your legal employer in Czechia, these duties sit with us: compliant pay ranges, the salary-history rule, employee pay-information requests, and reporting where it applies. We track the law as it changes so your hiring stays compliant.
