France — Gender equality index

Requirements

The report must include four or five specific indicators, depending on company size. Each indicator has its own numerical value. When added together, the indicators yield a total gender equality index between 1 and 100. All employees should be included in all indicators, with one exception. Employees who have been on maternity leave for more than six months and returned during the reference period should only be included in the fourth indicator.

The indicators are:

1. The gender pay gap within comparable jobs and age groups. This indicator has the highest value and can contribute up to 40 points to the index.
2. Difference in individual raises between men and women in comparable jobs. 35 points for companies with 50-250 employees, 20 points for those with 250+ employees.
3. Difference in the promotion rate between men and women in comparable jobs. This indicator is only required for companies with 250+ employees and can contribute up to 15 points.
4. Employees receiving raises when returning from maternity leave. 15 points.
5. Gender distribution among the 10 highest paid employees. 10 points.

With just a few clicks, beqom creates a complete Excel report for the French gender equality index. This report matches the official template on the government’s website (under “Comment calculer votre Index”).

PayEquity by beqom automatically performs all necessary calculations:

• Using the relevant indicators and weighting based on the organization’s size.
• Necessary groupings of employees (for indicators 1-3).
• Measuring which groups are valid and scaling the indicator if needed.
• Excluding employees who were on maternity leave for more than six months from other indicators.

To get started, users should be ready to provide data files with columns for the following:

• Gender, age and salary.
• The employee’s job (optionally mapped job roles to four socioeconomic categories defined by the French government.)
• Designations for employees who received raises, promotions and/or returned from maternity leave.

Changes to reporting and transparency requirements based on the EU Pay Transparency Directive

Transposition work began in May 2025, and a first draft of the transposition legislation was introduced on March 6th, 2026. This draft covers only the private sector, with measures for the public sector forthcoming. The draft legislation is up for review by employers’ and employees’ organizations in March 2026 and then will need to go to Parliament. Given this timeframe, France is unlikely to make the 2026 deadline for EU Directive transposition, and the implementation date for the new legislation is expected to be January 1st, 2027.

Under the proposed legislation, France would keep its gender equality index system, increasing the number of gender equality indicators from five to seven, in line with the Directive’s reporting requirements.

The new legislation would also keep the current company size threshold of 50 employees rather than raising it to the Directive’s minimum requirements of 100. To ease the reporting burden on smaller organizations, those with under 250 employees would only need to report on the seventh indicator, the pay gap by gender and employee category, once every three years.

In addition, the draft legislation adjusts the definition of “work of equal value” so it aligns with the Directive. This includes setting out guidelines for determining work of equal value, which for many organizations will involve coming to an agreement with trade unions on what the categories are.

In terms of recruitment and hiring practices, the draft legislation also goes beyond the Directive’s minimum requirement by requiring pay ranges to be provided in job postings, not just prior to the interview. Other transparency measures prohibit employers from asking about salary history and guarantee employees the right to talk about pay and request information about their pay, all in line with the Directive.

Lastly, the draft specifies follow-up actions for employers with gender pay gaps of over 5%. This would include joint assessments and action plans, in line with the requirements of the Directive. It also sets fines for noncompliance that are approximately in line with the current penalties (up to 1% of total payroll or 2% for repeated violations).

Further support in beqom

For years, beqom's Pay Equity and Transparency tool has been streamlining the reporting process in France with our easy-to-generate, submission-ready reports. As the EU Directive is implemented, these reports will be revised for the new indicators and required information and formatting.

• Pay equity analyses: Measure the adjusted pay gap and provides suggestions on how to close it, optimizing for timeframe and budget.
• Compensation Assistant: After the pay gap is closed, the compensation assistant helps ensure that it does not come creeping back through promotion or new hire decisions.
• Drill-down capabilities: Insight into specific groups of employees, like those in comparable jobs or those that have been on maternity leave, helps employers get a better understanding of their pay structure.

Please note that while this local resource information has been compiled by beqom's legal and pay equity experts, it does not constitute legal advice.