EU Pay Transparency Directive Bulgaria: A Compliance Guide

At a Glance

• Status: Draft published, deadline missed. Bulgaria published a draft bill on 19 May 2026 amending the Protection Against Discrimination Act (PADA) and the Labour Code (Кодекс на труда). Public consultation closed on 18 June 2026. Bulgaria did not transpose by the 7 June deadline.

• EU transposition deadline: 7 June 2026 (missed)

• Effective date: The draft targeted 7 June 2026 entry into force. Because consultation was extended past that date, the timing was not met. No confirmed effective date has been set.

• Target legislation: Amendments to the Protection Against Discrimination Act and the Labour Code, integrating the Directive into the anti-discrimination framework rather than a standalone pay transparency act.

• Reporting threshold: EU Directive thresholds (100+ employees, phased)

• Distinctive feature: The Commission for Protection Against Discrimination (CPAD) is expanded from a complaints body into a proactive monitoring, methodology and data-collection authority.

Implementation Status: Draft Published, Deadline Missed

Bulgaria did not transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive by 7 June 2026. A draft exists and has been through public consultation, but it has not been enacted.

On 19 May 2026, the Bulgarian Ministry of Labour and Social Policy published a draft law amending the Protection Against Discrimination Act and the Labour Code to transpose the Directive. The public consultation was initially set to close on 2 June 2026, then extended to 18 June 2026. The draft had targeted an entry-into-force date of 7 June 2026, but because the consultation ran past that date, transposition on time became procedurally impossible. As of mid-2026 the bill has not been adopted and no confirmed effective date has been set.

Bulgaria has historically maintained a mid-range gender pay gap (women's average gross hourly earnings were 12.0% below men's in 2024, against an EU average of 11.1%). The draft represents a substantial step up in enforcement intensity, moving from a largely reactive equal-pay regime to a proactive framework integrated with the Protection Against Discrimination Act and the Labour Code (Кодекс на труда). Notably, Bulgaria treats the Directive primarily as an anti-discrimination instrument rather than an HR reporting exercise, which is why the Commission for Protection Against Discrimination sits at the centre of the model.

The draft introduces a strict ban on requesting salary history, a significant shift in the Bulgarian recruitment market.

Enforcement responsibility is split between two bodies:

• General Labour Inspectorate, or GLI (Главна инспекция по труда) for primary labour law enforcement

• Commission for Protection Against Discrimination, or CPAD (Комисия за защита от дискриминация) for discrimination complaints and, under the draft, expanded monitoring and data functions

The draft also strengthens collective enforcement. Trade unions and equality bodies would be able to bring claims on behalf of workers, including collective claims, which raises the financial stakes of an unaddressed pay gap considerably.

Scope and Thresholds

The EU Pay Transparency Directive applies to all Bulgarian employers in both the public and private sectors. Substantive obligations apply regardless of size:

• Pre-employment transparency (including the salary history ban)

• The right to information

• Gender-neutral pay setting using objective criteria (Обективни критерии)

Reporting obligations are phased by headcount. Bulgaria is expected to align with the EU minimum threshold of 100.

For multi-entity groups, the threshold is expected to apply at the legal employer level. Confirmation with Bulgarian legal counsel is recommended once the transposing legislation is enacted.

Key Metrics

The EU Directive requires employers above the threshold to publish:

• The gender pay gap (mean)

• The gender pay gap in complementary or variable components

• The median gender pay gap

• The median gender pay gap in variable components

• The proportion of female and male workers receiving variable components

• The proportion of female and male workers in each quartile pay band

• The gender pay gap by categories of workers performing equal work or work of equal value (Категории работници)

The category-of-workers metric requires structured job evaluation using the four-factor methodology. According to TGS Bulgaria's roadmap, Bulgarian employers without an existing job architecture face substantial mapping work to define defensible categories before the first reporting cycle.

The draft creates a two-tier right to pay information, a Bulgarian feature that goes beyond the Directive baseline. Under the Protection Against Discrimination Act, an employee may request their individual pay level and the average pay levels by gender for workers doing the same work or work of equal value, with the employer required to respond within two months. Where the requested information is inaccurate or incomplete, the employer must provide a written response within 14 days of the follow-up. Separately, under the Labour Code, an employee may request the average pay level of workers at the same job level (without a gender breakdown). The employer must provide it within 14 days. Employers must also notify staff of these rights annually, by 31 January each year. Where disclosure could reveal an individual colleague's pay, the information may instead be routed through a trade union organisation or the Commission for Protection Against Discrimination. For the Directive baseline on the right to information, see PayAlign's Full Directive Guide.

The Recruitment Trigger: Why Job Ads Become Evidence

One of the most operationally significant features of the draft is how tightly it links recruitment transparency to the burden of proof. Under the Directive, where an employer has not met its pay transparency obligations, the burden shifts to the employer to prove that no discrimination occurred. The Bulgarian draft is built to make procedural compliance measurable, favouring fixed obligations over the Directive's more flexible "reasonable period" language.

The practical consequence for Bulgarian employers is that recruitment records become evidence. Where a required salary range is missing from a job advertisement, an employer is on weaker ground defending a later discrimination claim arising from that vacancy, because the transparency obligation was not met at the point of hiring.

For Bulgarian HR teams, this means:

1. Every job posting is a potential future evidence document. A transparency gap cannot be fixed retrospectively once a claim is filed.

2. Salary history questions are prohibited under the draft, with no transitional grace period signalled.

3. The recruitment workflow becomes the first line of compliance defence.

A procedural gap in 2026 may not surface as a claim until 2028 or later, but the evidential weakness is created at the moment of the breach.

Where Bulgaria Goes Beyond the Directive

The draft is positioned as a minimum-implementation exercise, but in practice it is more prescriptive than that framing suggests. The following are draft provisions rather than enacted law. Some detail may change before adoption.

No sub-50 exemption for pay-progression transparency. Article 6(2) of the Directive permits member states to exempt employers with fewer than 50 employees from pay-progression transparency obligations. The Bulgarian draft does not take that exemption, so the smallest employers must still make progression criteria accessible. This is the clearest instance of gold-plating in the draft.

Automatic justification to the enforcer at 5%. Where an unjustified pay gap of 5% or more is identified in any category of workers, the draft requires the employer to submit a formal written justification directly to the CPAD, rather than simply holding it on file. If the gap cannot be justified, the employer has six months to develop corrective measures with trade union or worker representatives. Those measures must then be implemented within one year.

Expanded CPAD role. The Commission for Protection Against Discrimination is turned from a reactive complaints body into a proactive institution that collects gender pay gap data, publishes selected structured data, develops the official job-evaluation methodologies and tools, then acts as the national repository for joint pay assessment reports.

Fixed operational deadlines. The draft favours specific calendar deadlines over the Directive's "reasonable period" wording. Employers must notify all staff in writing of their right to request pay data by 31 January each year. Covered employers submit their annual pay gap data to the CPAD by a fixed reporting date. Follow-up requests from workers, trade unions, the labour inspectorate or the CPAD on a pay gap report must be answered within one month.

Three-year historical comparator. When justifying equal pay for equivalent roles, employers may rely on a historical comparator only back to a worker in a comparable position within the previous three years. The draft also permits statutory or collective-agreement comparators and, where no actual comparator exists, a statistical or hypothetical comparator.

Collective actions. Trade unions and equality bodies would be able to bring claims on behalf of workers, including collective claims. This materially raises financial exposure, since a single pay gap affecting many workers can be litigated together rather than one claim at a time.

Anti-secrecy across contract and Labour Code. The draft prohibits contractual restrictions preventing employees from discussing pay, reinforced in both the anti-discrimination legislation and the Labour Code.

Penalties and Risks of Non-Compliance

The Bulgarian enforcement architecture for labour law operates through the GLI, with parallel responsibility for discrimination claims sitting with the CPAD. The EU Directive (Article 23) requires fines that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

According to Innovires Legal's analysis, the financial risk profile is materially higher than the underlying administrative fines suggest. Three changes drive the elevated risk:

1. Uncapped compensation under Article 16. The right to compensation includes full back pay, lost opportunities and non-material damages with no statutory upper limit.

2. Collective actions. Trade unions and equality bodies would be able to bring claims on behalf of workers, including collective claims. A pay gap affecting many employees can therefore be litigated together rather than one claim at a time.

3. Reversed burden of proof (Обратна тежест на доказване). The employer must prove no discrimination occurred. This is particularly difficult to defend without structured pay documentation.

The combination means a single procedural failure in recruitment can compound into class-action scale liability years later, with no statutory cap on the eventual damages award.

How PayAlign Helps Irish Employers Prepare

PayAlign is a compliance platform built specifically for the Irish Gender Pay Gap Information Act and the EU Pay Transparency Directive. It takes Irish & EU payroll data through the full compliance workflow without the spreadsheet engineering most employers currently rely on.

The platform handles automated gender pay gap reporting calculations across all 14 mandatory Irish and the EU Directive metrics, category-of-workers reporting, joint pay assessment workflow including documentation, audit-ready data supporting the reversed burden of proof and submission-ready outputs for the centralised public portal.

If you are preparing for your next reporting cycle and the broader EU Directive transposition, book a demo to see how it works.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the main requirements of the EU Pay Transparency Directive in Bulgaria?

The Bulgarian transposition introduces pre-employment transparency (including a strict salary history ban), structured pay reporting for employers above 100 employees, the right to information for employees, plus Joint Pay Assessment (Съвместна оценка на заплащането) where unjustified gaps exceed 5%. Compensation is uncapped.

Which Bulgarian institutions oversee pay transparency enforcement?

Enforcement is split between the General Labour Inspectorate, GLI (Главна инспекция по труда) for labour law compliance and the Commission for Protection Against Discrimination, CPAD (Комисия за защита от дискриминация) for discrimination complaints. Employers can face parallel investigations from both bodies.

What does the Bulgarian Labour Code say about pay transparency?

The Labour Code (Кодекс на труда) is being amended alongside the Protection Against Discrimination Act. Key amendments include a strict ban on asking candidates about prior pay, mandatory salary range disclosure in job advertisements and the automatic reversal of the burden of proof for procedural breaches.

What are the consequences for Bulgarian employers who fail to comply?

Under the Directive, compensation for pay discrimination is uncapped, including full back pay and non-material damages. The draft also allows trade unions and equality bodies to bring collective claims, which raises financial exposure. Where an employer has not met its transparency obligations, the burden of proof shifts to the employer to show no discrimination occurred. These obligations apply once Bulgaria enacts the transposing legislation.

How can pay transparency help achieve equal pay in Bulgaria?

Pay transparency works by exposing unjustified differences in equal pay (Равно заплащане) for work of equal value. Once the pay gap (Разлика в заплащането) is published per category of workers, employers must justify any unjustified gap exceeding 5% through a Joint Pay Assessment which drives structural change rather than relying on individual claims to amend current pay structures.