Salary transparency after Legislative Decree no. 96/2026

Legislative Decree No. 96 of 7 May 2026, published in the Official Gazette No. 125 of 1 June 2026 and entered into force on 7 June 2026, implemented Directive (EU) 2023/970 in Italy, introducing an organic regulation on pay transparency and on the strengthening of the principle of equal pay between women and men for equal work or work of equal value.

The legislation affects both private and public employers and concerns, in general, subordinate work, with the inclusion of part-time relationships and managerial staff; On the other hand, according to the first available interpretations, domestic work and intermittent work are excluded.

This newsletter, while taking into consideration the Legislative Decree as a whole, is aimed specifically at companies with up to 250 employees

Scope

The new rules cover the entire cycle of the employment relationship: pre-employment phase, establishment of the relationship, salary management, economic progression, access to average salary data, possible reporting of the pay gap and, in the cases envisaged, joint evaluation of salaries.

A particularly relevant aspect is the extension of protection to candidates as well: equal pay therefore already enters the recruiting phase, with immediate effects on advertisements, notices, interviews and activities carried out by consultants or intermediaries in charge of selection.

For many SMEs, this involves a change of approach: activities that were previously managed informally, such as indicating the salary during the interview or the formation of the individual offer, must now be reduced to predefined and verifiable criteria. 

General matters

In the new discipline, a broad notion of remuneration is important, which includes not only fixed components but also utilities and variable components, while the average salary level, according to the first clarifications that have been issued, must be constructed with reference above all to continuous and structural elements, excluding individual non-structural treatments, such as personal superminimums or one-off bonuses.

The comparison must take place between workers who perform the same work or work of equal value, on the basis of common, objective and neutral criteria; in this context, comparable categories, average levels, median values and the distribution of pay by quartiles are relevant.

Hence the need, even for small structures, to map tasks, levels, pay differentials and ancillary components, to avoid that the comparison between positions remains entrusted to merely intuitive or historical evaluations.

THE NATIONAL COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT

For companies, especially small and medium-sized ones, the first operational safeguard remains the collective agreement applied. The classification and classification systems contained in the CCNL stipulated by the comparatively more representative organizations are in fact the main reference parameter for verifying the correctness of the economic treatments.

However, this reference does not protect against automatic disputes: even in the presence of a correct reference to the CCNL, the employer must be able to justify any individual differences with verifiable, consistent and non-discriminatory reasons.

It is therefore appropriate for companies to make a clear distinction between elements of remuneration deriving from the collective agreement and elements recognised at individual or company level, documenting for the latter the organisational, professional or meritocratic reasons justifying their attribution.

The Hiring Phase

From 7 June 2026, candidates must be informed about the initial salary envisaged for the position or the related salary range, by means of indications to be included in advertisements or notices, determined according to objective and neutral parameters.

It is also forbidden to ask candidates for information on the salaries received in previous employment relationships; The prohibition also applies when the acquisition takes place through third parties involved in the selection process.

For companies with up to 250 employees, this is probably the most immediate novelty: it is necessary to update ad templates, interview scripts, instructions to external recruiters and economic offer grids, avoiding excessive margins of undocumented discretion.

From an operational point of view, it is advisable to prepare standard salary ranges for tenured families or classification levels, to reduce the risk that the economic offer is built on a case-by-case basis on the basis of the negotiating power of the individual candidate.

During intercourse

The regulations require employers to make the criteria used to determine remuneration and those adopted for economic progression accessible to employees, including through the information provided on recruitment pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 152/1997, provided that it shows at least the level of classification, the initial salary and the collective agreement applied.

For employers with less than 50 employees, a simplification is envisaged: they remain excluded from the obligation to make available the criteria relating to economic progression, while the other transparency obligations remain unaffected.

On a practical level, even SMEs benefiting from this exemption should still have minimum internal criteria to justify changes in level, individual increases, recognition of superminima and awarding of bonuses, since the risk of dispute is not eliminated.

The exemption, in fact, is not equivalent to a fully discretionary freedom: when a difference in pay is contested, the absence of written criteria makes it more difficult for the employer to prove the neutrality and objectivity of the choices made.

Workers’ right to information

Workers can request information on the average pay levels applied to employees who perform the same work or work of equal value, with data broken down by gender; The request may be submitted once a year, including through workers’ representatives or equality bodies, and the employer must provide a written and reasoned reply within two months.

Contractual clauses prohibiting workers from disclosing their remuneration are not permitted. In addition, the employer can comply in a more orderly manner by making this information available on the intranet or in a reserved area, provided that it is in an understandable and verifiable form.

For small companies, the critical point will be above all organizational: it will be necessary to be able to correctly identify comparable categories, extract aggregated data, protect their confidentiality and justify any differences found.

It will also be advisable to establish a clear internal process: who receives the request, who processes the data, who validates the response and with what timeframe. In smaller realities, the lack of a procedure risks turning the new right into a source of delays, incomplete answers or avoidable disputes.

Privacy

Pay transparency does not eliminate obligations regarding the protection of personal data. When the information requested or communicated may allow, even indirectly, to identify the remuneration of individual workers, access must be managed in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and with the limitations provided for by the regulations.

In practice, this means that the information to be provided to workers must be aggregated and organized in such a way as to avoid the identification of individual positions, especially in structures with few employees or very specialized roles.

This profile is particularly delicate for SMEs, in which it may happen that a comparable category is composed of a small number of people: in such cases, the construction of the aggregate data requires further attention, because the mere indication of an average value can make the situation of one or more workers recognizable.

Obligations for companies between 100 and 250 employees

For employers with at least 100 employees, the decree introduces an additional level of compliance, consisting of the communication of data on the gender pay gap, including fixed and variable components, distribution in quartiles and access to reward systems.

According to the first available summaries, for employers with at least 250 employees, data collection must take place by 7 June 2027 and then annually; for those between 150 and 249 employees, the first fulfilment is set for 7 June 2027 and is renewed every three years; for those between 100 and 149 employees, the start is set for 7 June 2031, every three years.

For the range up to 250 employees, therefore, the main distinction is as follows:

• up to 49 employees: no obligation on the criteria of economic progression and no obligation of periodic reporting on the gender pay gap according to the first available clarifications; However, the obligations on selection, basic transparency and the right to information remain.^[5][4]
• from 50 to 99 employees: no periodic reporting on the pay gap, but full application of internal transparency obligations and the right to information.^[2][4]
• from 100 to 149 employees: immediate general obligations and reporting on the pay gap with first fulfillment from 2031.^[3][10]
• from 150 to 249 employees: immediate general obligations and initial reporting by 7 June 2027, then every three years.^[6][10][3]

Summary for companies with at least 250 employees

Companies with at least 250 employees are subject to the most intense framework: in addition to all the general obligations, they must carry out the collection and reporting of data on the pay gap by 7 June 2027 and annually thereafter.

If the data communicated shows, in a category of workers, an average wage gap of at least 5 percent between women and men, not justified by objective and neutral criteria and not corrected within six months, the joint evaluation of wages with the workers’ representatives is triggered.

For larger companies, the central issue is not only informational, but also governance: job evaluation systems, reliable salary metrics, HR-data flows, structured comparison with representatives and traceability of corrective actions are needed.^[7][8][13]

Other operational considerations

A first consideration concerns the documentary dimension. Many companies, especially smaller ones, have substantially reasonable but poorly formalized remuneration policies. The decree does not necessarily impose sophisticated systems, but it does make the lack of written evidence risky, because any difference will have to be explainable ex post with objective elements.

A second consideration concerns the consistency between sources. It will not be enough to have a good ad text or correct recruitment information if, in practice, increases, superminimums, bonuses or level changes are attributed with logics that are not aligned with the CCNL applied and the declared criteria.

A third consideration concerns groups of companies and realities with several related companies. The first analyses show that the comparison can also be relevant in contexts where the economic treatment derives from a common source, regulatory or contractual; This suggests caution in the management of remuneration policies that are apparently autonomous but, in practice, homogeneous at Group level.

Finally, the reputational and commercial reflection of the new discipline must be considered. Remuneration transparency tends to become part of the broader ESG perimeter, social sustainability and organisational reliability; Therefore, timely adaptation can constitute not only a defensive protection, but also an element of qualification towards workers, customers, clients and financial partners.

Sanctioning profiles

The decree is part of the protection system of the Equal Opportunities Code, recalling the procedural and anti-discrimination tools already provided for by Legislative Decree no. 198/2006, including the protection mechanisms against victimization.

In the event of ascertained discrimination, specific consequences are also invoked such as the possible withdrawal of public benefits, exclusion from tenders and the application of a fine including, according to the available summaries, between 250 and 1,500 euros.

For SMEs, the real risk is not only the financial penalty, but the litigation based on undocumented wage differences, the difficulty of providing consistent justifications and reputational exposure to employees, unions and public or private clients.

It should also be considered that litigation in the field of equal pay can be fueled not only by salary data, but also by inconsistencies in selection procedures, economic progression, return from leave and in the management of variable components of remuneration.^[20][2]

First recommended actions for companies up to 250 employees

In the short term, it seems appropriate to set up an adjustment plan articulated at least in the following steps:

1. verify the CCNL applied, the levels of classification and the possible presence of company agreements or non-formalized remuneration practices;
2. review ads, notices, application forms and instructions to recruiters, entering salary or salary range and removing any questions about previous salary;
3. prepare written internal criteria for increases, superminimums, level changes, bonuses and progressions, even when not strictly mandatory;
4. build a minimum mapping of comparable categories and structural remuneration components;
5. define a procedure to respond within two months to workers’ requests and to correctly manage privacy profiles;
6. for companies with 150 to 249 employees, start collecting data now for the first reporting of 2027.
7. For companies with very personalized remuneration policies, schedule a preventive check-up of the most exposed differentials, especially in the commercial, technical and managerial areas.

Conclusion

For companies with up to 250 employees, Legislative Decree no. 96/2026 not only introduces new formal obligations, but requires greater organisational quality in personnel management: consistency of criteria, documentation of decisions, supervision of selections and the ability to explain salary differences.^[7][4]

The most structured companies will also have to add reporting systems and periodic analysis of the gender pay gap to these safeguards; however, SMEs would also do well to move immediately with similar logics, because pay transparency is destined to become a stable indicator of organizational reliability and employer fairness.^[16][6]

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Do not hesitate to contact us for any further information.

Sincerely,

Aldo Filippini

This newsletter is the result of a collaboration between artificial intelligence and human expertise, with revision and editorial care by Aldo Filippini