Malta Pay Transparency Rules 2026: What the New Law Means for Your Salary
On 7 June 2026, Malta's new Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations (Legal Notice 173 of 2026) came into force, transposing the EU Pay Transparency Directive. Salary ranges in recruitment, a ban on salary history questions, new pay information rights and gender pay gap reporting — here is what employees, job seekers and employers in Malta need to know.
Key dates at a glance
- • 5 June 2026 — LN 173 of 2026 published in the Government Gazette (No. 21,661)
- • 7 June 2026 — regulations in force; recruitment and pay information rights apply immediately
- • 2027 — first gender pay gap reports due from employers with 150+ workers
- • 2031 — first reports due from employers with 100–149 workers
1. Overview: What Happened on 7 June 2026
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970) required all member states to transpose its rules into national law by 7 June 2026. Malta did so right on the deadline: the Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations, 2026 were published as Legal Notice 173 of 2026 on 5 June 2026 and entered into force two days later.
Malta is the fourth EU member state to implement the Directive, after Italy, Lithuania and Slovakia. The goal is simple: close the gender pay gap by making pay structures visible — to candidates before they sign, to workers while they are employed, and to regulators through periodic reporting.
The recruitment and information rights apply to all employers from day one. Documentation and reporting obligations scale with company size, with the heaviest duties on companies employing 100 or more workers.
2. New Rights for Job Seekers
You now have the right to
- • See the initial pay or pay range for the role — in the vacancy notice or before the interview
- • Receive any relevant collective agreement provisions on pay
- • Negotiate from an informed position
Employers can no longer
- • Ask about your salary history in current or previous jobs
- • Keep pay levels secret until the offer stage
- • Base your offer on what you earned before
In practice, expect Maltese job adverts to start carrying salary brackets the way Irish and German ones increasingly do. If an advert does not state the pay, you are entitled to ask for it before the interview — and the employer must provide it. Wondering what a gross figure in an advert actually leaves in your pocket? Run it through our Malta salary calculator or work backwards from your target take-home with the net-to-gross calculator.
3. New Rights for Current Employees
The regulations give every worker in Malta a right to pay information. You can request, in writing, and your employer must provide:
- Your individual pay level; and
- The average pay levels, broken down by sex, for categories of workers performing the same work as you or work of equal value.
Employers must inform workers annually of their right to request this information. Equally important is what disappears: pay secrecy clauses. Contract terms that prevent you from disclosing your own pay for the purpose of enforcing equal pay are no longer enforceable in Malta.
Employers must also make the criteria used to set pay and pay progression accessible to their workers (see the size thresholds below). Those criteria must be objective and gender-neutral.
4. Employer Obligations by Company Size
| Company size | Key obligations |
|---|---|
| All employers | Pay range to applicants, salary history ban, workers' right to pay information, no pay secrecy clauses |
| 25–49 workers | Internally document the criteria used to determine pay |
| 50+ workers | Written, accessible criteria for pay, pay levels and pay progression |
| 100–149 workers | Gender pay gap report every 3 years, starting 2031 |
| 150–249 workers | Gender pay gap report every 3 years, starting 2027 |
| 250+ workers | Gender pay gap report annually, starting 2027 |
Note that the recruitment-stage rules — pay ranges and the salary history ban — apply to every employer in Malta regardless of headcount, from the village grocer to the largest iGaming operator.
5. Gender Pay Gap Reporting & the 5% Rule
Companies above the 100-worker threshold must compile a pay gap report showing the difference in average pay levels between female and male workers, including complementary and variable components such as bonuses.
The teeth of the system is the 5% rule: where a report reveals a gender pay gap of at least 5% in any category of workers that cannot be justified by objective, gender-neutral criteria, and the employer does not remedy it within six months, the employer must carry out a joint pay assessment in cooperation with workers' representatives — a structured audit of pay levels, the proportion of men and women in each category, and the measures that will close the gap.
6. Enforcement, Burden of Proof & Penalties
Two changes make these rules considerably easier to enforce than previous equal-pay provisions:
- Reversed burden of proof. In pay discrimination claims, it is now for the employer to prove that no discrimination occurred — not for the worker to prove that it did. An employer that failed to meet its transparency obligations will find this especially difficult.
- Full compensation. Workers who suffer pay discrimination are entitled to compensation including back pay and related bonuses or payments in kind.
Beyond civil claims, non-compliance can expose employers to financial liability and criminal sanctions under Maltese law.
7. What to Do Now
If you are an employee
- • Exercise your right: request your pay level and the sex-disaggregated averages for your category
- • Benchmark offers — adverts must now show ranges, so compare before you negotiate
- • Check your payslip against the 2026 tax bands and COLA with our salary tools
If you are an employer
- • Add pay ranges to vacancy notices and strip salary history questions from interview scripts
- • Map workers into categories of equal-value work and document objective pay criteria
- • Run an internal pay audit before the first reporting cycle in 2027
Related Tools & Guides
- Malta Salary Calculator — gross to net with 2026 tax bands, SSC and COLA
- Net to Gross Salary Calculator — work out the gross you should ask for in a negotiation
- Overtime Calculator — 1.5x and 2x rates for extra hours
- Malta Minimum Wage 2026 Guide
- Malta Tax Rates 2026: Complete Guide
8. Frequently Asked Questions
When did Malta's pay transparency rules come into force?
The Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations 2026 were published as LN 173 of 2026 on 5 June 2026 and came into force on 7 June 2026, the EU transposition deadline. Malta was the fourth member state to implement the Directive.
Do job ads in Malta now have to show a salary range?
Applicants have a legal right to the initial pay or pay range of the position — in the vacancy notice or in good time before the interview — plus any relevant collective agreement provisions.
Can an employer still ask what I earned in my last job?
No. Asking job applicants about their pay history in current or former employment is prohibited from 7 June 2026.
Can I find out what colleagues doing the same job are paid?
You can request your own pay level and the average pay, broken down by sex, for workers doing the same work or work of equal value. You cannot demand a named individual's salary, but pay secrecy clauses are no longer enforceable.
Which companies must publish a gender pay gap report?
250+ workers: annually from 2027. 150–249 workers: every three years from 2027. 100–149 workers: every three years from 2031. Unjustified gaps of 5% or more that are not fixed within six months trigger a joint pay assessment.
Does this apply to small businesses too?
The recruitment rules — pay ranges for applicants and the salary history ban — apply to all employers. Documentation duties start at 25 workers, written pay-progression criteria at 50, and reporting at 100.
Negotiating with a salary range in hand?
Now that adverts must show pay ranges, turn any gross figure into your actual take-home — 2026 tax bands, SSC and COLA included.
Malta Calculator Editorial Team
Financial Content Specialists | Malta Tax & Employment Experts
Our team specializes in Maltese tax law, social security contributions, and employment regulations. All content is reviewed against official sources from the Malta Commissioner for Revenue and the Department of Social Security.
Official Sources
- Legal Notice 173 of 2026 — Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations, 2026
- Directive (EU) 2023/970 — EU Pay Transparency Directive
- Mamo TCV Advocates — The New Equal Pay Regulations 2026 Published
- Ius Laboris — Malta implements the Pay Transparency Directive
Data verified as of 12 June 2026. Rates and thresholds are subject to change based on Malta government budget announcements.
Share this article
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!
Calculate Your Exact Tax
Use our free Malta Salary Calculator to get your exact tax amount, SSC contributions, and net salary for 2026.
Calculate Now