Let AI do the heavy lifting to achieve Pay Transparency

By Alessandra Breveglieri

In a world of economic uncertainty, rising cost pressures and volatile geopolitical climates, the last thing employers need is yet more legislation, adding to their cost base and driving up their admin overhead. So is the latest EU Pay Transparency directive just another hurdle to overcome, or is it an opportunity to lead as fair and pay-transparent employers? 

Enforcing the principle of equal pay for equal work, this directive aims at reducing gender pay and pension gaps across all organisations in member states of the European Union. As highlighted by the European Council, the lack of pay transparency remains a significant barrier to closing the gender pay gap, which averaged 13% across the EU in 2020, while in Ireland, EU 2023 estimates showed that women earned on average 8.6% less than men (The Irish Times, 2025).

By June 2026, the directive requires employers to: 

1. Disclose the roles’ starting salary range before candidates’ interviews, and average pay levels, if requested by their employees, based on objective, gender-neutral criteria.
2. Report gender pay gaps annually, if the organisation has over 250 employees, and every 3 years if within 100–250 employees.
3. Conduct a joint pay assessment and compensate affected workers appropriately, if an unjustifiable pay gap over 5% is found. 

While compliance with the directive can improve staff retention and boost a company’s reputation as a progressive employer, achieving transparency remains a complex challenge. First of all, companies must be able to gain a clear understanding of their current work breakdown and “as-is” compliance, by analysing large quantities of HR and payroll data. Following this assessment, if gaps are identified, employers must be equipped to size the cost of the remediations and manage their implementation. This includes objectively defining and establishing a robust job grading architecture, to be adopted by their own HR system and then reflected into the companies’ HR policies, job specifications, onboarding processes and employees’ contracts. Comprehensive pay gaps reporting must also be produced, collecting all necessary data while respecting employees’ confidentiality, and across all of this endeavour, organisations must effectively communicate with employees to ease the transition into transparency, addressing any concerns around pay gaps and pre-empting any cultural resistance.

All of this work can be significantly expensive and time-consuming for any organisations, so what can help tackle this compliance journey? GenAI can be part of the solution. 

At Sia, we help clients gain deeper insights into business processes and address regulatory challenges more efficiently by leveraging GenAI’s rapid data analysis and visualization capabilities. Specifically, our AI OrgReview product delivers detailed insights into individual job tasks across an organization, accurately mapping them to comparable roles and salaries to support compliance in a more cost-effective manner.

With a rigorous methodology and a strong AI tool, organisations can turn a complex regulatory task into a catalyst for stronger workforce trust, operational clarity, and long-term competitive advantage, positioning themselves as a fair ESG champion, attracting and retaining the best talent. 

If your organisation is preparing for the new EU Pay Transparency Directive, get in touch with us to explore how Sia can support your journey with smart, scalable AI tools.

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