Pay equality should be served on a silver platter

In 2026, speaking about equality between men and women might be considered an outdated topic. It is not - and the Portuguese labour context is far from being an exception.

Precisely because it is not yet outdated, International Women’s Day also serves as an invitation to reflect on the central place that gender equality should occupy in public debate, especially in a country that enshrines this principle as one of the pillars of its Constitution.

Despite the progress achieved, reality shows that in Portugal the pay gap between men and women remains significant.

According to the most recent Barometer of Pay Differences between Women and Men, published in 2025, the average pay gap stands at 12.5% to the detriment of women, rising to 15.4% when total remuneration is considered. Translated into days, this would be as if Portuguese women worked 46 days per year without receiving any pay.

Although there has been a slight reduction compared to the previous year, these figures show that pay equality remains an unfulfilled challenge.

It is in this context that the transposition - by June 2026 - of the European Pay Transparency Directive assumes particular relevance.

The new legislation aims to strengthen mechanisms to combat pay discrimination based on gender and to promote greater transparency in remuneration policies, requiring, among other measures, that companies provide information on average salaries by gender, as well as on the criteria used to determine and progress remuneration.

This is an important step, since access to such information is often a necessary condition for workers to identify and challenge unjustified pay inequalities.

At the same time, pay transparency represents an opportunity for companies to reassess their remuneration practices and policies.

The analytical exercise that organisations will need to undertake will make it possible to determine whether they truly treat men and women equitably when they perform the same roles or, although performing different roles, contribute work of equal value to the organisation.

In this regard, it is important to underline that pay equality is not limited to a direct comparison between male and female workers performing the same functions. It must also be analysed from the perspective of work of equal value. It is often from this perspective that pay differences are identified which, without an internal audit, would go unnoticed.

Pay transparency therefore has the potential to bring pay equality from the level of intentions to the centre of companies’ internal policies. And ultimately, every transparent remuneration policy is an essential step towards an equality that is intended to be full, concrete, and lasting—served, as it should be, with complete openness.