Country guide
Pay transparency in Malta
What the EU Pay Transparency Directive means for employers in Malta, based on its national transposition — status, thresholds, the joint-assessment trigger, and where to file.
Malta transposed the Directive via Legal Notice 173 of 2026 (Equal Pay (Transparency and Reporting) Regulations, 2026), published in the Government Gazette on 5 June 2026. NOTE: the instrument itself contains NO express commencement provision — reg. 22 refers to breaches arising "on, or after the date of coming into force of these regulations" without fixing it, while regs. 6(1) and 9(2) assume the regulations operate during 2026. The 5 June 2026 date is the Government Gazette PUBLICATION date; the instrument names no commencement day and Maltese law supplies no default, so the day it came into force is not recoverable from primary text. What is missing is the DAY, not the LAW — L.N. 173 is made, gazetted and in effect, and regs. 9(2)–(4) date the substantive duties outright without reference to commencement. SEPARATELY, a parallel duty has bound Maltese employers since 27 August 2025: reg. 5A of S.L. 452.126, inserted by Legal Notice 112 of 2025, gives workers the same individual pay-information right on a TWO-MONTH clock and applicants the initial pay or its range at recruitment. L.N. 173/2026 neither revokes nor amends it, and no conflict rule resolves the two — both are regulations made under art. 48(2) of Cap. 452, so art. 48(5) cannot prefer either. Eight days is the shorter and therefore the operationally safe answer, and is what this profile states.
Malta has transposed the EU Pay Transparency Directive into national law. The obligations below are in force and follow that national statute, not the directive in the abstract.
Reporting duties apply by employer size: 150 to 249 employees, from 2026 · Every three years; 250 or more employees, from 2026 · Annual; 100 to 149 employees, from 2030 · Every three years. A mean pay gap of 5% or more in a role category triggers a joint pay assessment with worker representatives.
Employers may publish the pay-gap figures, but the law does not require it. Either way, the underlying work is the same: establish work of equal value through gender-neutral job evaluation, produce the statutory pay-gap report in the national format, and run a joint assessment where the gap is too wide.
Obligations at a glance
| Reporting threshold |
|
|---|---|
| Joint pay assessment | 5% gap |
| Public publication | Permitted, not required |
| Competent authority | Department for Industrial and Employment Relations (DIER) as Monitoring Body, with the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) as Equality Body |
Frequently asked
Is the EU Pay Transparency Directive in force in Malta?
Malta has transposed the EU Pay Transparency Directive into national law. The obligations below are in force and follow that national statute, not the directive in the abstract.
Which employers have to report in Malta?
Reporting duties apply by employer size: 150 to 249 employees, from 2026 · Every three years; 250 or more employees, from 2026 · Annual; 100 to 149 employees, from 2030 · Every three years.
What triggers a joint pay assessment in Malta?
A mean pay gap of 5% or more in a role category triggers a joint pay assessment with worker representatives.
This guide summarises publicly available information for orientation only. It is not legal advice — confirm every figure against Malta's own transposition text before relying on it.