Since 6 January 2018, employees in Germany have been able to ask what colleagues of the other sex earn for equal or equivalent work. The Pay Transparency Act gives this right in establishments with more than 200 employees. The employee must name a comparable job. The answer is the median pay of that group, converted to full-time. If fewer than six people of the other sex do the job, the employer does not give the figure. Few people use the right. In evaluations in 2019 and 2023, about four percent of employees said they had made a request. An EU directive on pay transparency had to be written into German law by 7 June 2026. Germany missed the deadline. In July 2026, the federal government told the Bundestag that a draft law was still being prepared.