The gender pay gap is the difference between the average gross hourly earnings of male and female paid employees, expressed as a percentage of the average gross hourly earnings of male employees.

In this map, we explore the different frameworks adopted by countries across the globe.

Meanwhile, major changes to gender pay reporting are on the way in the European Union, due to the Pay Transparency Directive. For further information on the current status of transposition of this directive across the EU Member States, please see our dedicated Pay Transparency Directive map.

For the purposes of this map, “gender pay information” means any pay-related data that is disaggregated by sex. This includes both calculated gender pay gap metrics (such as a mean or median pay gap) or underlying gender-disaggregated pay data (such as average remuneration or payroll figures broken down by gender).

The different categories in the map can be described as follows:

• Public reporting obligations – Employers must proactively report gender pay information that is accessible to the public, such as on a website, public register, annual report, or government portal.
• Non-public reporting obligations – Employers must proactively report gender pay information to, for example, employees, employee representatives, trade unions, regulators, labour authorities, or statistical agencies, but it need not be publicly accessible.
• Information on-request – No routine gender pay reporting is required, but employers must maintain and provide gender pay information when an authorised body requests it.
• No specific reporting or on-request obligations – There is no specific obligation to report, maintain or provide gender pay information, although equal pay or anti-discrimination rules may still apply. Employers may also be subject to reporting obligations relating to other, non-pay related gender-disaggregated workforce information.
• Proposals (overlay) – A pending or anticipated legislative reform that, once in force, would introduce or expand gender pay reporting requirements.