Pay Transparency inProgress Valuing Jobs, Closing Gender Pay Gaps Gender Equality at Work Pay Transparencyin Progress VALUING JOBS, CLOSING GENDER PAY GAPS This work is issued under the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD, and does not necessarily reflect theofficial views of OECD Member countries. This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty overany territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use ofsuch data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements inthe West Bank under the terms of international law. OECD (2026),Pay Transparency in Progress: Valuing Jobs, Closing Gender Pay Gaps, Gender Equality at Work, OECDPublishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/121f268d-en. ISBN 978-92-64-43210-9 (print)ISBN 978-92-64-53164-2 (PDF)ISBN 978-92-64-96760-1 (HTML) Gender Equality at WorkISSN 2957-5958 (print)ISSN 2957-5966 (online) Photo credits:Cover © Atelier211/Shutterstock.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. By using this work, you accept to be bound by the terms of this licence(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Attribution– you must cite the work.Translations– you must cite the original work, identify changes to the original and add the following text:In the event of any discrepancy between the original work and thetranslation, only the text of the original work should be considered valid.Adaptations– you must cite the original work and add the following text:This is an adaptation of an original work by the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed inthis adaptation should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries.Third-party material– the licence does not apply to third-party material in the work. If using such material, you are responsible for obtaining permission from the third party and forany claims of infringement.You must not use the OECD logo, visual identity or cover image without express permission or suggest the OECD endorses your use of the work.Any dispute arising under this licence shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Arbitration Rules 2012. The seat of arbitration shallbe Paris (France). The number of arbitrators shall be one. Foreword Equal pay for equal work, and work of equal value is a priority for OECD countries. Pay inequality isconsistently ratedamong the top threemost pressing gender equality challenges by OECDgovernments–a prioritisation that has remained broadly unchanged since 2016, when the OECD first began surveyingcountries on their gender equality priorities. Yet considerable pay inequalities persist, with disadvantageaccumulating over the life course. Progress in closing the gender pay gap has been painfully slow. Full-time working women in the OECDstill earn, on average, 90cents to every dollar or euro earned by full-time working men. The average paygap has declined by only ninepercentage points (p.p.) since the 1990s. At the current pace of change, itwould take decades more to close existing gaps. Against this backdrop, pay transparency has emerged as a promising set of policy tools to accelerateprogress. The appeal is intuitive: greater transparency supplies firms, workers and their representativeswith information to advocate for equal pay. Thisfirm-level focus is particularly important given that muchof the pay gap is concentrated within firms. The OECD has a longstanding body of work to support countries in assessing and addressing the causesand consequencesof gender and pay inequality in labour markets,including on the use of paytransparency tools to improve pay equity and ensure equal opportunities. This report, produced withsupport from Italy’s National Institute for Public Policy Analysis (Istituto Nazionale per l’Analisi dellePolitiche Pubbliche–INAPP) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, is the third in the OECD’sstocktaking series on pay transparency, followingPay Transparency Tools to Close the Gender Wage Gap(2021)and Reporting Gender Pay Gaps in OECD Countries:Guidance for Pay TransparencyImplementation, Monitoring and Reform(2023). This 2026 edition documents a policy landscape inprogress and providesan updated overview of gender pay gap reporting, pay auditing and gender-neutraljob evaluation and classification measures across OECD countries–with expansion of such measureslargelydriven by the EU Pay Transparency Directive.The report offers actionable guidance forgovernments introducing, implementing or reforming pay transparency tools. As most OECD countriesexpand and refine