Online Surveys on Wage Transparency

A new directive on wage transparency has been in force in the EU since June 2023. It must be implemented in every Member State, including Austria, within three years. This directive aims to give employees the right to information about the remuneration of comparable groups. The aim is to eliminate gender-based discrimination in pay by introducing pay transparency and establishing better enforcement mechanisms for employees, such as complaints in cases of identified inequalities. However, the effectiveness of the directive and its implementation largely depends on how individual Member States, including Austria, transpose it into national law. It is therefore essential, on the one hand, to raise awareness of the directive and the implementation process so that as many people and institutions as possible are aware of these new opportunities and can advocate for the ‘good’ implementation of the directive in Austria. On the other hand, it is necessary to gain insights into company practices in order to gather relevant arguments to underpin the need for good implementation.
L&R Sozialforschung was commissioned to conduct an online survey of employees and works council members throughout Austria in order to establish a basis for their experiences and attitudes regarding wage transparency across all federal states, industries, company sizes, professional backgrounds and positions, and to support the implementation of effective wage transparency in Austria.
The result is a comprehensive report that presents the findings for Austria as a whole and for the individual federal states.