The draft act provides, among other things, that:

1. Job evaluation, every employer must evaluate the positions in their establishment taking into account at least four mandatory criteria (skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions), or face a fine.
2. The criteria and sub-criteria used to determine the value of work must be agreed with trade unions – if present. The categorisation of employees (performing work of equal value) must also be consulted with trade unions. Where there are no trade unions present, these matters are determined independently by the employer.
3. Differentiation of pay for employees performing the same work, or work of equal value, will remain permissible, provided it is justified by objective, gender-neutral criteria, such as achievements and skills.
4. An employee will have the right to request information on their individual pay level and on average pay levels, broken down by gender, for the category of employees performing the same work, or work of equal value. The employer will be obliged to provide a response within 30 days. Once a year (by 31 March), the employer must remind employees of this right.
5. Employers will be required to make certain information available to employees and candidates in a manner accessible to persons with disabilities.
6. All employers with at least 100 employees (including temporary agency workers) will be obliged to calculate and report any gender pay gap.
7. The obligation to calculate the pay gap will be annual, but the frequency of submitting reports to the public authority will depend on headcount (more than 250 employees – annually; 100 to 249 employees – every three years).
8. By 31 March each year, employers with at least 100 employees will be required to inform employees and trade unions about the pay gap – broken down by categories – or face a fine.
9. A pay gap of at least 5% in any employee category that is not justified by objective, gender-neutral criteria will trigger an obligation to take remedial action. This will require cooperation with trade unions, and in certain cases the employer will also be required to carry out a joint pay assessment.
10. The limitation period for claims relating to a breach of the principle of equal treatment will be interrupted, among other things, by a relevant complaint submitted to the employer.
11. The single source principle, allowing comparisons between employees of different employers, applies where pay conditions are determined jointly with the employer, or outside the employer, for more than one enterprise, in particular through binding regulations within a capital group.
12. The catalogue of offences under the Labour Code will be expanded. After the act enters into force (on 7 June 2026), a failure to comply with new recruitment-related obligations, which will start to apply from 24 December 2025, will constitute an offence (in particular, a failure to provide candidates with information on remuneration, or the use of job titles that are not gender-neutral in job advertisements).
13.  Breaching a wide range of obligations under the act will be punishable by a fine of up to PLN 50,000. This includes, for example, a failure to carry out a job evaluation, a failure to prepare a gender pay gap report, or a failure to inform employees of the criteria used to determine remuneration, its levels and increases.

Find more articles in PRO HR December 2025.