What triggers a joint pay assessment: the 5% gap and the six-month clock
Reporting your gender pay gap is the filing. The joint pay assessment in Article 10 is the operational consequence, and it is the part most reward teams should plan for first, because it can commit you to a formal process with worker representatives.
The three-part trigger
A joint pay assessment becomes mandatory when all of the following are true:
- Your pay reporting shows a difference in average pay between female and male workers of at least 5% in any category of workers;
- you have not justified that difference on objective, gender-neutral criteria; and
- you have not remedied it within six months of the report.
All three conditions have to be met. A 5% gap that you can justify on objective grounds, such as tenure or a genuine market factor applied consistently, does not by itself force an assessment. A gap you cannot justify and do not fix within six months does.
It is measured per category, not across the whole workforce. The 5% threshold applies within a category of workers doing the same work or work of equal value. So an employer with a small headline gap can still trip the trigger inside one job family. This is why the by-category data point matters more than the headline number.
What the assessment involves
The joint pay assessment is carried out in cooperation with worker representatives. It is not a private internal note: it must identify, analyse and remedy differences in pay between female and male workers in the categories concerned. In practice that means examining the affected categories, testing whether the differences rest on objective, gender-neutral criteria, and putting in place measures to close the unjustified part. The involvement of worker representatives is a defining feature, which is why it carries more weight than a simple correction.
The six-month clock is the planning point
The clock runs from the report. If your report surfaces an unjustified 5% gap in a category, you have six months to remedy it before the assessment obligation crystallises. That window is short if you have not prepared, because remedying a pay difference can mean re-levelling roles, adjusting pay structures and budgeting for back pay. The way to avoid a scramble is to run a dry-run gap calculation well before your first reporting deadline, so any 5% categories surface while you still have time to justify or fix them on your own timetable.
Why the reversed burden of proof raises the stakes
Separately, Article 18 shifts the burden of proof to the employer in equal-pay claims, and Article 16 provides for compensation including full recovery of back pay. Read together with the 5% trigger, the message is that an unexplained, unremedied gap is not just a reporting line; it is exposure. Planning the assessment before you are forced into it is the cheaper path.
The paid country report frames the 5% trigger as the real operational risk for your member state and sets a backward-planned timeline from your first deadline, including when to run the dry-run calculation. Start with the free checker to fix your reporting date.