Pay transparency: Lithuania’s biggest HR shift for 2025–2026

Over the next year, every company in Lithuania will have to rethink how it manages, communicates, and justifies pay. The reason? A major new law that will change the way we all talk about salaries.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive, which Lithuania is now implementing, comes into effect on June 7, 2026. It’s designed to ensure that men and women are paid equally for the same or equal value work and to make salary systems across Europe more transparent and fair.

What’s actually changing

Until now, companies have been required to follow equality rules, publish salary ranges in job ads, and provide information to Sodra. But starting next year, HR will face a new level of responsibility: not just to apply the rules, but to justify that pay is fair and objective.

That means every organization must:

• Group all roles into same or equal value work categories based on clear, gender-neutral criteria such as skills, qualifications, effort, and responsibility.
  
  
• Define and document how pay levels are set and how increases are decided.
  
  
• Be able to explain and justify any differences between employees doing equal or equal value work.
  
  

Employees will have new rights

From June 7, 2026, employees will be able to request written information about:

• Their own salary and the average salary by gender within their job group.
  
  
• The company’s criteria for setting and increasing pay.
  
  

This information can’t be treated as confidential if shared to ensure pay equality. Employers will also be prohibited from asking job candidates about their past salaries, and they’ll have to inform all staff once a year about their right to access this data.

What happens if companies don’t comply

If a pay gap can’t be justified, the consequences are real:

• Employers could be required to compensate employees for up to three years retroactively.
  
  
• Fines of up to €6,000 may apply.
  
  
• And perhaps most importantly, companies risk damaging their reputation as fair and trustworthy employers.

As compensation expert Eligijus Kajieta notes, the real shift is cultural: “Transparency isn’t just compliance — it’s becoming a competitive advantage.”

What HR should do now?

HR leaders in Lithuania should start preparing now:

• Map roles and group them by objective criteria.
  
  
• Review pay data and close unjustified gaps.
  
  
• Train managers on how to discuss pay confidently and transparently.
  
  
• Communicate openly with employees about what’s changing and why.
  

‍The takeaway

Pay transparency isn’t only a legal requirement, it’s a mindset change. The companies that start building fair, data-backed, and open pay systems today will be the ones employees trust tomorrow.

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