Greece Tells Employers: Name the Salary Before the Interview

Greek job candidates will no longer have to guess what a position pays. Under a new transparency framework that took effect in the private sector, employers must disclose the starting salary or pay range — and any applicable collective agreement — before a job interview takes place.

The measure is Law 5316/2026, which transposes EU Directive 2023/970 into Greek law. It imposes wide-ranging information, reporting and documentation duties on companies while strengthening the disclosure rights of both employees and applicants across the country.

What Changes at the Hiring Stage

The obligations begin well before a contract is signed. Alongside the pre-interview salary disclosure, employers may no longer ask applicants what they earned in previous jobs. Job advertisements must avoid requesting details about gender or marital status and must use gender-neutral job titles. All information has to be provided in accessible formats.

Once a hire is made, further formalities apply. Employers must file an electronic notification through the ERGANI II system using form E3 before the employee starts work, and hand over the precise terms of employment in writing within one week.

Pay Queries and How Wage Structures Are Built

Private-sector staff can request in writing the level of their individual pay on an annual and hourly basis. They may also ask for average salaries broken down by gender for categories of equal or equivalent work.

Companies have two months to respond to such requests, with reasons provided. Confidentiality clauses that bar employees from discussing their own pay are void.

As a rule, employers must maintain a written pay structure based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, drawn up in consultation with employee representatives. The factors include skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions, plus length of service and social competences where relevant.

Where a collective agreement applies, its existing categories and pay grades can be used instead. Businesses with fewer than 50 staff are exempt from the obligation to share these pay criteria.

Reporting Duties Scale With Headcount

Larger employers face specific reporting requirements to the labour inspectorate and the Ombudsman. Reports must cover the overall and median pay gap, differences in variable pay components, and the gender distribution across pay quartiles. The duties are staggered by company size:

• 250 or more employees: annual reporting, with a first deadline of 7 June 2027
• 150 to 249 employees: reporting every three years, also first due by 7 June 2027
• 100 to 149 employees: first report in 2031
• Fewer than 100 employees: full exemption from the formal reporting duties

Employers must also set up pay-tracking mechanisms to monitor the internal wage gap on an ongoing basis. If a gender pay difference of at least 5 percent emerges within a category and cannot be justified by objective criteria — and is not eliminated within six months of the data being submitted — a mandatory joint assessment with employee representatives is triggered. Companies then have one year to implement corrective measures and raise the pay of the lower-paid staff.

Enforcement, Evidence and Penalties

Workers who suspect unequal treatment can turn to the labour inspectorate, trade unions, the Ombudsman or the courts directly. The Ombudsman may also bring legal action on behalf of affected individuals. In legal disputes, the burden of proof rests with the employer.

Beyond protection against retaliation, the law provides for back pay of retroactive differences, interest, and compensation for non-material damage with no upper limit. Administrative fines also await companies that fail to comply.