Pay Transparency Directive. Will we be discussing our salaries at the office coffee machine?

13.09.2025

For some time now, you have been wondering whether you are earning as much as you should. You have been working in the same company for several years and continue to receive praise for excellent results. Lately, however, you have a feeling that your salary does not reflect your commitment and contribution to the company’s growth. You feel that you are underpaid.

To make matters worse, the office grapevine has informed you that your colleagues in the department earn more, even though you perform the same duties. You feel frustrated, but after all, these are just rumors. You tell yourself that everyone has a different contract, and salaries surely do not differ that much…

However, the subject keeps coming back to you like a boomerang. The rumors gain momentum and you finally reach a breaking point; while standing at the coffee machine, you start a conversation with a colleague from the next desk. Although the topic of money is not easy, you do not let the taboo break you. You directly tell him how much you earn and how much your last bonus was. It turns out that your colleague earns significantly more than you, even though he has worked for a shorter time and has less experience. You feel that it is the moment to talk to your superiors about a raise.

Suddenly, the HR department invites you for a meeting. At first, you do not connect the dots, but after a moment you realize that your informal conversation about finances has reached the employer. And, as it turns out, your openness regarding the salary you receive is not welcome.

HR reminds you that your employment contract includes a confidentiality obligation. This also applies to the amount of your remuneration. Furthermore, your salary level is a trade secret. This stems directly from the regulations. You are not allowed to share this information with other employees or with outsiders. You receive a warning – another such conversation is to end in a disciplinary dismissal for you.

Can the employer actually forbid you from talking about money? Or perhaps the law is on your side?

The EU Pay Transparency Directive comes as an answer to the above doubts. These are new regulations intended to help combat hidden pay gaps and increase salary transparency. Poland should implement the rules provided by the directive by June 2026.

At the moment, we have a draft act in Poland called “Transparent Wages” (Jasne zarobki). And already in this draft, we have a provision that explicitly indicates that employers may not instruct employees to keep the amount of their remuneration secret.

In practice, this means that pay confidentiality clauses will become history. The employer will not be able to prohibit or prevent an employee from disclosing information about the remuneration received.

But is this definitely a change?

Although these changes may seem revolutionary, in practice they constitute merely a confirmation of what is already permitted today. Neither the Labour Code nor other Polish legal regulations prohibit discussions about the amount of remuneration. If these conversations are conducted, for example, to verify whether one is being discriminated against, they are entirely permissible.

Already in 2008, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy confirmed in an official position that employers may not forbid employees from disclosing the amount of their earnings [position DPR I-0712-18/MF/08]. It was considered that such clauses are inadmissible because they do not allow for verification of whether pay discrimination is occurring in the company.

The Supreme Court has expressed a similar view many times, emphasizing that employees have the right to exchange information regarding salary levels in specific positions if this is intended to counteract pay discrimination.

Such action cannot constitute grounds for the disciplinary dismissal of an employee: “The transfer by an employee to other employees of data covered by the so-called pay confidentiality clause for the purpose of counteracting unequal treatment and manifestations of pay discrimination cannot constitute grounds for the termination of their employment contract under Art. 52 of the Labour Code” [Supreme Court Judgment of 26.05.2011, II PK 304/10].

Therefore, already today, you can freely discuss the amount of your remuneration with other employees.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive and the planned Polish regulations are only intended to confirm this and close any potential discussion on whether one can or cannot talk about money at work.

And what about access to information regarding the salaries of other employees?

You have the right to talk openly at work about your own remuneration. But will you also find out, thanks to the directive, how much your colleague at the next desk earns if he or she does not want to reveal it to you?

The answer to this question is: no. This is because everyone has the right to decide whether they want to disclose how much they earn or not. You will not obtain such information from an HR person either.

The disclosure by the employer of an employee’s remuneration level without their consent may constitute a violation of their personal rights [Supreme Court Resolution (7) of 16.07.1993, I PZP 28/93].

You may therefore ask HR about the remuneration of another employee, but only when that person gives their consent. This is important, as caring for employee privacy is also a vital element of personal data protection.

Does this mean, however, that there will be no limits and everyone will be able to talk to everyone else about how much they earn? When can a conversation about remuneration get you into trouble?

The introduction of the possibility of free conversations about salary levels is intended to allow everyone to verify whether they are actually earning as much as they should. This is the goal of the new regulations. In particular, this applies to women, who in many cases earn less than men. And that is one side.

On the other hand, however, we have the interests of companies, which also want to protect information about how much they pay employees. They do not want to reveal such information to other companies, e.g., direct competitors.

And here is precisely that other side. The boundary of conversations about our salaries. As employees, we have a duty to care for the welfare of the workplace and protect the company’s interests, including keeping secret information whose disclosure could expose the employer to damage (Art. 100 § 2 item 4 of the Labour Code).