Abstract
The gender pay gap is persistent and only slowly closing. Full-time working women in the OECD still earn on average 90 cents to every dollar earned by men. Pay transparency tools can help promote pay equity, by providing clear gender-relevant information on pay for stakeholders to address remaining inequalities. Almost 40% of OECD countries now require private-sector employers to conduct gender-neutral job evaluations, while others recommend or are introducing such practices. Pay gap reporting is set to become the norm: by end-2026, it is expected that 84% of OECD countries will mandate private-sector pay gap reporting, up from 55% today – with much expansion in pay transparency approaches driven by the EU Pay Transparency Directive. This third OECD stocktaking on pay transparency provides an overview of gender-neutral job evaluation and classification, pay gap reporting and pay auditing, and pre-employment salary transparency, offering guidance for governments leveraging pay transparency tools to accelerate progress towards equal pay. Gender-neutral job evaluation and classification systems are central to operationalising equal pay for work of equal value, enabling comparison of jobs based on objective criteria and the establishment of objective pay structures.
Key findings
- The pay gap between women and men is persistent, and progress in closing it slow. In 2024, the median woman working full time still earned, on average, around 10% less than their male counterpart across the OECD. In almost three decades (between 1995-2024), the OECD average gap has declined by around nine percentage points (p.p.). At this pace, it could take decades more to close remaining gaps, perpetuating inequalities that accumulate over the life course.
- Against this backdrop, pay transparency tools such as gender-neutral job evaluation and classification, gender pay gap reporting, equal pay audits and salary disclosure pre‑employment have gained momentum amongst a majority of OECD countries.
- Pay transparency systems across the OECD are in transition. Around three‑quarters of OECD countries have assessed or adapted one or more pay transparency tools since 2022, and/or report that they intend to implement changes to pay transparency in the near future (76% of OECD countries). The most substantial changes lie ahead as EU OECD countries prepare to transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
- Gender pay gap reporting requirements are becoming an OECD-wide norm. By the end of 2026, it is expected that 84% of OECD countries (32 of 38) will mandate private sector gender pay gap reporting, up from 21 out of 38 countries mandating it today. Major changes are also expected to reporting requirements, and with respect to job evaluation and classification systems.
- Recent pay gap reporting reforms have focussed on evaluation of existing systems, expanding coverage to more employers and workers, expanding the breadth and depth of information reported, reducing reporting burden for employers, and strengthening transparency by making pay information more publicly accessible. An especially promising practice is the use of administrative data to partially or fully calculate gender pay gap information on behalf of private sector employers, as is done in Denmark, Lithuania and Portugal.
- Gender-neutral job evaluation and classification systems are a cornerstone of equal pay in labour markets as they allow systematic evaluation and comparison of the value of work, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria. Where done effectively, they also enable organisations to identify pay gaps for work of equal value. There are varying levels of maturity across OECD countries as to the implementation of gender-neutral job evaluation and classification systems. Major convergence in policy approaches and legal frameworks is expected as EU OECD countries implement the EU Pay Transparency Directive.
- Rigorous evaluation of pay transparency tools remains limited and paints a mixed picture. Evidence suggests that pay gap reporting can narrow pay gaps where well-designed and implemented. Countries which have been the most successful in reducing gaps through pay gap reporting tend to rely on design features like straightforward compliance and third-party involvement, including transparency to the public.