Portuguese 
English 
Spanish 
4 min of reading 
0 comments 
On June 7, 2026, Directive (EU) 2023/970 comes into effect in the 27 countries of the European Union, prohibiting employers from asking candidates about salary history during interviews and requiring the publication of the job’s salary range before the first contact, while Brazil chose to address the same issue through the mandatory internal transparency of Law 14.611 of July 2023.
The European rule is in Article 5(2) of the Directive, adopted by the European Parliament on May 10, 2023 and named the Pay Transparency Directive. The 27 member states of the bloc have a final transposition deadline of June 7, 2026, when the text becomes national law in each country.
Article 5(1) is equally straightforward. The employer is required to indicate the proposed salary range in the job vacancy or, at the very least, disclose this information before the first interview. Simply violating the prohibition on asking about salary history is already sufficient reason for sanction, without the need to prove discrimination.
The rule applies to any employer, public or private, in any sector, within the 27 member states of the bloc. According to Bizneo, the European Commission’s calculation indicates that the gender pay gap in the European Union is around 13%, and the Directive was designed to reduce this gap by targeting the most frequent point of disparity reinforcement, the automatic continuation of historically low salaries.
-
Billionaire Anne Marie Werninghaus, heir to WEG with R$ 9.1 billion, inaugurated the a.marie store at Casarão Emmendörfer in Jaraguá do Sul.
-
While millions of Brazilians still face unemployment and low wages, Chinese companies are increasing the hiring of foreigners, bringing more than a thousand Chinese people to Brazil each month, and changing the industrial reality of Bahia.
-
China is about to get its hands on one of Brazil’s largest nickel sources, but the European Union has decided to hold up the $500 million deal and may even block the sale permanently in the coming months.
-
Once a joke, the Brazilian currency Real now sparks global interest. ‘We want the Real as a global currency,’ says an executive from the Solana Foundation.
What changes in every European job interview
The directive also guarantees the worker the right to request and receive, within two months, information about the average salary in the company for the same position, broken down by gender. If the worker files a lawsuit alleging discrimination, the burden of proof lies with the employer, who must demonstrate the absence of discrimination. Sanctions include fines and full compensation, with retroactive payment of differences.
The fact that Brazil still allows the question about previous salary surprises a significant part of the European market. The logic of the Directive is simple. If the company is only going to pay above the candidate’s previous salary, it perpetuates the salary history of those who entered the market at a disadvantage, usually black women, young entrants in their first job, professionals returning after years of maternity leave. The range published before the interview breaks this cycle. I confess that, reading the text, it is clear that the design targets the daily routine of HR and not the big executive negotiations.
Mandatory reports and a 5% pay gap
The scope of mandatory reports is staggered. Companies with 250 or more employees submit annual data. Between 150 and 249 employees, the cycle is triennial. When the pay gap in the same job category exceeds 5%, the employer must justify the difference with objective and gender-neutral criteria, under penalty of being required to correct it.
The directive also legitimizes unions, associations, and equality bodies to take legal action on behalf of workers, greatly expanding the scope of oversight without increasing the state’s structure. The European Commission believes that this combination of transparency and reversal of the burden of proof is what is missing in the rest of the world.
Brazil’s different path with Law 14.611
Brazil addressed the same issue with a different response. Law No. 14.611, enacted on July 3, 2023, amended Art. 461 of the Consolidation of Labor Laws and established the salary transparency system via the Emprega Brasil Portal, fed by data from eSocial and RAIS. Companies with 100 or more employees must submit, semi-annually, aggregated reports broken down by gender, race, and age.
What the Brazilian law does is tackle opacity after hiring, not prevent data collection during the interview. The question about salary in the last job remains allowed in the Brazilian selection process, with no specific administrative sanction linked to it. I imagine the effect of a candidate in Berlin bringing a copy of the legislation in their briefcase and the Brazilian, in the same week, being questioned about the last paycheck without any legal support to refuse the answer.
We often assume that major labor reforms always come from national parliaments. Directive 2023/970 shows a different path. Europe stacked 27 countries behind a single rule that changes the standard job interview script in just over two weeks. Brazil chose another route and there is still no bill in progress in Congress to prohibit the question in the selection process.
Have you ever been asked about your previous salary in a job interview? Share in the comments if you answered, dodged, or refused.
Be the first to react!