Pay Transparency in Latvia: What Applies Now, and What the EU Directive Will Add

The EU Pay Transparency Directive was due in Latvian law by 7 June 2026, and it is not there yet. This page keeps apart three things that usually get blurred together: what Latvian law already requires, what the directive will require once Latvia adopts it, and what Latvia's draft law proposes on top.

Latvia's pay transparency law is still a draft, and drafts change. Every draft provision here is labelled as one, and the page is rechecked when the bill moves. It explains the law and a proposal for it; it is not legal advice.

Has Latvia Transposed the EU Pay Transparency Directive?

Not yet. Member states had until 7 June 2026, and Latvia missed it. The Ministry of Welfare published a draft Pay Transparency Act on 26 March 2026, and its guidance still says work on transposing the directive is under way, so none of the directive's new employer duties is yet part of Latvian law.

Latvia is transposing it through a separate new law, the Darba samaksas pārredzamības likums, rather than by amending the Labour Law. After public consultation the bill went into reconciliation, before it goes to the Cabinet of Ministers and then the Saeima, according to one tracker of the directive across member states. No date for it to take effect has been set in law.

Until it passes, a Latvian employer's pay transparency duties are the ones the Labour Law already contains, and those are real.

What Does Latvian Law Already Require on Pay Transparency?

Two things, for every employer. Since 22 October 2024, a job advert must state the range of the post's total gross monthly or annual pay, or of the intended hourly rate. And the Labour Law requires equal pay for men and women for the same work or work of equal value, which an employee can enforce in court.

An employee paid less than a colleague of the other sex for equal work can claim what the employer normally pays for that work, and must bring the claim within three months from the day they learned, or should have learned, of the breach.

The advert rule asks for a range rather than a single figure, and it applies to every advertised post, whatever the size of the company. The cost of hiring guide looks at how the adverts from companies on this map meet it.

One more piece of existing law matters, because the draft borrows it. The Labour Law defines pay as regular remuneration for work, including salary, allowances, bonuses, and any other remuneration connected with the work.

What Will the EU Pay Transparency Directive Require of Employers?

Once Latvia adopts it, job applicants get a right to the initial pay or its range, employers may not ask about their pay history in current or previous jobs, and workers can ask for their own pay and the average pay, by sex, of workers doing the same work or work of equal value, with an answer due within two months.

The duties, in the order a worker meets them:

• Before hiring. Applicants are told the initial pay or its range, such as in a published job vacancy notice, before the job interview, or otherwise. Vacancy notices and job titles must be gender-neutral.
• Pay history. An employer may not ask applicants about their pay history in current or previous jobs.
• Pay setting. Employers must make the criteria used to set their pay, pay levels, and pay progression easy for workers to find, and the criteria must be objective and gender-neutral. Member states may spare employers with fewer than 50 workers the part about progression.
• Information on request. Workers can ask for their own pay and the average pay, by sex, of workers doing the same work or work of equal value, and the employer must reply within two months. Employers must remind all staff of that right every year.
• Pay secrecy. Member states must prohibit contract terms that stop workers disclosing their pay.

Underneath all of it sits a requirement to set pay on criteria that include skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions, so that roles can be compared by the value of the work rather than by title.

When Do Pay Gap Reports Start in Latvia?

Employers with 250 or more workers report by 7 June 2027, and every year after that, those with 150 to 249 by 7 June 2027, and every three years after that, and those with 100 to 149 by 7 June 2031, and every three years after that. The Ministry of Welfare plans no reporting duty below 100 workers.

The report covers the gender pay gap, including in bonuses and other variable pay, the median gap, and the share of women and men in each pay quartile. The ministry's guidance says employers will have to act where the gap between women and men exceeds 5%.

Latvia's draft keeps the first reporting date but moves every later report to 1 June of the reporting year, a week before the directive's date.

A startup with a few dozen people has no report to file. The rules on pay information for applicants, pay setting, and workers' requests apply to it regardless of size.

How Does Latvia's Draft Pay Transparency Law Differ From the Directive?

In three ways. It puts pay in the advert, possibly as a gross figure or estimated hourly rate for the total monthly or annual starting pay rather than a range, defines pay as remuneration for work to be paid on a regular basis, and caps company fines at EUR 14,000. All three could still change before the Saeima votes.

The advert. The directive lets employers give pay information at any point early enough to negotiate. Latvia already requires it in the advert, so that part changes less than it sounds. The open question is the form: the Labour Law asks for a range today, while the draft appears to ask for a gross figure or estimated hourly rate for the total monthly or annual starting pay, which is harder to square with an offer that is still being negotiated.

The definition of pay. The directive covers basic pay and any other consideration in cash or in kind. The draft's wording, remuneration for work to be paid on a regular basis, is close to the Labour Law's existing definition, and it may leave irregular payments outside the comparison.

Fines. Company fines under the draft run from EUR 1,100 to EUR 14,000, fixed amounts rather than scaled to the employer's size, and the draft sets no heavier penalty for repeat breaches.

What Are the Penalties for Pay Transparency Breaches in Latvia Today?

Small, for now. A company that breaches the ban on unequal treatment in employment faces a warning or a fine of up to EUR 700, and other breaches of employment law, which would include an advert without a pay range, up to EUR 1,100. An equal pay claim for the difference can cost more.

The draft's fines are a step up, to EUR 14,000. What changes more for an employer is the duty to explain: once the directive is in force, a worker can ask for the pay of comparable colleagues, and the employer has to have an answer.

What Should a Latvian Startup Do Before the Law Passes?

Build the pay structure the directive assumes, because none of it depends on the final Latvian wording. Group roles by the value of the work, set a range for each, write down the criteria, stop asking candidates what they earn now, and check that advertised ranges match what you actually pay.

Here is a version you can run in an afternoon with a spreadsheet.

1. List every role, not every person. One row per role, with the people in it and what each is paid. Put regular pay in one column and bonuses in another.
2. Score each role on four criteria. Skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions, each on a simple scale such as one to five, agreed by at least two people.
3. Group roles with similar totals into bands. Roles in the same band count as work of equal value, whatever their titles or departments.
4. Set a range for each band from what you pay now and what you would advertise, wide enough to allow progression and narrow enough to mean something.
5. Look for outliers. Anyone paid outside their band's range, and any band where women and men are paid differently, needs a reason you could write down. Fix what you cannot explain.
6. Write down how people move up. A paragraph per band on what earns progression is the start of the criteria staff will be entitled to see.
7. Change the hiring script. Take pay history questions out of interviews and application forms, and put the band's range in every advert, which Latvian law already requires.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Job Adverts in Latvia Have to Include the Salary?

Yes. Since 22 October 2024, every job advert must state the range of the post's total gross monthly or annual pay, or of the intended hourly rate. Latvia's draft pay transparency law may tighten that to a gross figure or estimated hourly rate for the total monthly or annual starting pay.

Can an Employer in Latvia Ask About Salary History?

The Labour Law does not yet prohibit it. The directive bans asking applicants about their pay history in current or previous jobs, so the question will be off limits once Latvia's law is adopted, and stopping now costs nothing.

Does the Pay Transparency Directive Apply to Small Companies in Latvia?

Yes, except for reporting. The rules on pay information for applicants, pay setting, and workers' requests apply whatever the size, while pay gap reports start at 100 workers. Member states may spare employers with fewer than 50 workers from explaining pay progression.

When Is the First Pay Gap Report Due in Latvia?

Employers with 250 or more workers report by 7 June 2027, and every year after that, and those with 150 to 249 report by 7 June 2027, and every three years after that. Employers with 100 to 149 workers first report by 7 June 2031, and every three years after that.

What Is the Fine for Not Stating Salary in a Job Advert in Latvia?

Under the Labour Law as it stands, a company faces a warning or a fine of up to EUR 1,100. Latvia's draft proposes company fines of EUR 1,100 to EUR 14,000 for breaches of the new law.

When Will Latvia's Pay Transparency Law Take Effect?

No date is set, because the law has not been adopted. At the last check the bill was in reconciliation, before it goes to the Cabinet of Ministers and then the Saeima. This page will be updated when the Saeima passes it.

Sources

• Directive (EU) 2023/970, articles 5 to 7 for applicants' and workers' rights, article 9 for pay gap reporting, and article 34 for the transposition deadline.
• Darba likums, the Labour Law. Article 32, third part, has pay in job adverts, article 59 the definition of pay, article 60 equal pay, and articles 161 and 162 the fines. The Administrative Liability Law sets the value of a penalty unit.
• The Ministry of Welfare, for how Latvia is transposing the directive, the reporting threshold it plans, and the state of the work.
• Sorainen, on the first public draft of the Darba samaksas pārredzamības likums, and Lewis Silkin, on how the draft differs from the directive.
• Trusaic, for the stage the bill had reached in August 2026.

This page explains the law and a draft of it. A draft is not the law, and a decision about your own pay structure needs someone who can see it.