Norway

Equal Pay

Employer responsibilities

All employers have a duty to prevent gender pay differences and to promote equality

All employers in Norway, no matter how many employees, have a duty to prevent discrimination and promote equality. For larger employers, there are some more detailed requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, equal pay and pay transparency.

Employer duties

Employers with more than 50 employees or where requested by the employees or union (between 20 to 50 employees) have an activity duty as well as a duty to issue a statement on equality and anti-discrimination. The activity duty includes a duty to investigate gender pay differences in the company, and the statement should include the results of this investigation.

For smaller companies of less than 20 or without a request for a full procedure, the requirements are lessened.

Global requirements

By June 2026, the EU Pay Transparency Directive must be implemented in local legislation across the EU. This means that companies with activities in the EU will need to comply with all local legislation in all countries where they operate.

The Directive is currently marked as EEA relevant, and may be enforced in Norway and the rest of the EEA as well.

In addition, more and more equal pay and pay transparency legislation is currently being implemented in the UK, US and across the globe. These trends require employers to be more systematic and transparent in their pay practices. With activities in different territories, these requirements might be relevant for your company as well.

What is needed?

Salary data

You have to collect and validate your salary data, as well as other compensation and demographic data. Data quality is an often overlooked part of working with salaries and compensation. We can help you set up up and guide your through a competent workflow for your salary data, ensuring that you avoid critical errors.

Job analysis, evaluation and classification

To be able to determine equal pay for work of equal value, it is important to classify jobs correctly. We can help you to make it work within your existing structure, or in implementing a new and more fit for purpose structure to classify jobs.

Reporting and duty of activity

The requirement is a four step process – investigate, analyse, implement, and evaluate. The outcome for larger companies is a pay transparency report. We can be with you every step of the way to help you complete each step and the required compliance.

The most important part of the process is to start.

How can we support you?

Analysis

Using the best tools in the business, we can analyse your salary date to help you determine the status of pay equality in your company. We can help you set up and run the project in an efficient way, and can run the entire process for you or guide in the work together with internal resources.

Reporting

We can support you with preparing a fully compliant report for your company, for adaptation and inclusion in the annual report, or as a stand alone publishable report. Along the way, we can help you at every step of the process leading up to this report.

Planning for further work with compensation

Working with equal pay and compensation can uncover structural challenges and future opportunities. We can help you define and continue the work with pay transparency and equal pay, as well as compensation and benefits as a whole, to ensure you are a competitive and equitable employer.

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