Slovakia equal pay Act 76/2026: pay in job ads and deadlines

Act No. 76/2026 Coll. on equal pay for men and women took effect on 7 June 2026. A candidate is entitled to the starting pay or its range before the interview, the employer may not ask about previous pay, and from 100 staff the employer files pay reports on the schedule in section 18.

The calendar of duties from 2026 to 2031

The Act transposes Directive (EU) 2023/970 on pay transparency, and its duties start in stages. For an HR department the most practical reading is as a calendar, because some dates have already passed.

An employer that had no pay structure in place by 31 July 2026 is already late. The other dates are still ahead.

Job ads and interviews under section 4

Section 4(1) requires published job offers and job titles to carry no reference to one sex, and recruitment to run without discrimination. A title written only in the masculine or feminine form, common in Slovak, should be reviewed before the offer goes live.

Under section 4(2) and (3) a candidate is entitled to the starting pay or its range, together with the relevant collective agreement terms, before the interview or before the contract is signed. The employer meets this duty when the published job offer itself states the starting pay or range. That is also the simplest way to show the information was given on time.

Section 4(4) bars the employer from asking a candidate what they earn or earned with a current or former employer. The question often sits in standard application forms and interview scripts, so it has to come out of those as well as out of spoken practice.

The Act applies in the same way to recruitment of third country nationals. The pay range in the ad should match the pay the employer uses in its other documents, including the calculation set out in the guide to the cost of employing a foreign worker. Current vacancies are listed on the job board.

The pay structure and employee rights

Section 3 requires a pay structure built on objective criteria such as complexity, responsibility, effort and working conditions, so that equal work and work of equal value can be compared. An employer that existed before 7 June 2026 had to put it in place by 31 July 2026 under section 18(1).

Under section 5 the criteria for setting pay and pay level must be available to staff. The criteria for pay rises must be made available only from 50 employees.

Section 6(2) lets an employee request their own pay level and the average pay for comparable work split by sex. The employer answers in writing within two months. Under section 18(2) the information on average pay by sex is first provided for the year 2027. Under section 6(8) contract clauses that bind an employee to keep their own pay secret are void, so contract templates with such a clause need to be revised.

Pay reports and the 5 per cent gap

Under section 8 an employer with at least 250 staff files a pay report with the Ministry of Labour every year by 15 April. An employer with 100 to 249 staff files one every three years. The transitional dates in section 18(3) and (4) set the first report at 7 June 2027 for employers with at least 150 staff and at 7 June 2031 for employers with 100 to 149 staff.

Where a report shows an unjustified gap of 5 per cent or more in any category and the employer does not remove it within six months, section 9 requires a joint pay assessment.

Consequences of a breach: burden of proof and fines

The most common failure: the employer posts a vacancy with no starting pay or range and gives none before the interview. That breaches section 4, and under section 12 the employer then carries the burden of proof in any equal pay dispute: it must prove that no discrimination occurred. A breach of section 5, 6, 8 or 9 has the same effect.

The limitation period for a claim under section 11 is three years. Other sanctions regimes that apply to employers of foreign workers are covered in the guide to illegal employment fines and labour inspection. The full text of the Act is published at Slov-Lex.