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A candidate I hired last year told me something I wasn't expecting.
She said: "You're the first recruiter who asked about my salary expectations before we even scheduled an interview."
She wasn't being complimentary. She was surprised. Almost suspicious.
Her previous process had gone three rounds - senior-level role, Amsterdam, before salary came up.
She asked in round two. The recruiter said: "We'll align on that at offer stage."
She stayed because she needed the move. The offer came in €18,000 below what she had been earning.
She took it. Because by that point, walking away felt like failure.

That one question in my first screening call - five minutes, before any interview was booked, would have saved her twelve weeks and that entire loss. I ask about salary expectations at the start of every process. Not to screen candidates out. To make sure neither of us wastes time on a number that was never going to work.

That is not how most EU hiring runs. It is how it should run.
And as of 7 June 2026, the law agrees.

— WHAT CHANGED —

On 7 June 2026, the transposition deadline for EU Directive 2023/970, the Pay Transparency Directive — passed.

In plain terms: EU law now requires employers to disclose salary ranges before your first interview. And it prohibits them from asking what you currently earn. The legal architecture has shifted. Your position in every salary negotiation has shifted with it.

The gap between what the law requires and what employers are actually doing is enormous. According to Indeed Hiring Lab's analysis published in May 2026, just 12% of job postings in Germany include salary information. The Netherlands, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Denmark have all confirmed delayed national implementation, per Morgan Lewis's legal analysis published 5 June 2026.

That gap is exactly where your negotiating leverage lives right now.

— THE RIGHTS —

What the directive actually gives you

Article 5 of EU Directive 2023/970 creates two rights that matter directly to you as a candidate.

First: employers must give you the salary or salary range for a role before your first interview — in the job posting itself or with the interview invitation. Second: employers are explicitly prohibited from asking about your salary history with any previous employer.
That second right is the one almost no candidate knows about. And it matters more than the first.

The salary history question is a structural trap. Once you disclose what you earned before, every offer that follows is anchored to your past. If you were underpaid at your previous company, the new offer gets built on top of that underpayment. If you were earning above the role's band, your number gets used to cap you.

The directive was designed specifically to break that anchor.

— THE REALITY —

Why most employers are still getting away with it

The June 2026 deadline passed. But most countries have not finished turning the directive into enforceable national law. That distinction matters.

According to Trusaic's Transposition Monitor updated June 2026, only four of 27 EU member states fully met the deadline: Italy (Legislative Decree 96/2026), Slovakia (Act 76/2026), Lithuania (Law XV-969), and Malta (Legal Notice 173 of 2026). The Netherlands, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Denmark have all confirmed delays to 1 January 2027, per Morgan Lewis.

In most EU markets today, you cannot take a company to court based solely on the directive. Ius Laboris, in their March 2026 legal analysis of the Netherlands, confirms that in the Dutch private sector, employees cannot yet directly rely on the directive against employers until national law is enacted.

But the legal direction is unambiguous. And employers, especially those competing for international tech talent know it.

— THE TRAP —

The wide band problem and how to read it

Even where disclosure is happening, employers have found a way to technically comply while giving you nothing useful.

A role posted at €40,000–€140,000 is transparent on paper. It tells you nothing about where they intend to hire. Data Berlin's salary transparency tracker, updated June 2026, notes this directly: a band spanning six figures is a compliance shield, not an answer.

The signal is a narrow band — a €15,000 to €20,000 spread — because that means the company has actually priced the role. Wide bands reveal employers who posted a number to stay legally safe, not employers prepared to negotiate in good faith.

When you see a band that spans €80,000 or more, ask directly: "Where within this range are you targeting for this specific role?" A company with a real answer will give you one in thirty seconds.

— WHAT TO DO —

How to use this before your interview

Step one. Stop answering the salary history question. You are not obligated to answer — and in Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Malta, the employer is prohibited from asking. A redirect that works without confrontation: "I'd rather focus on what this role pays in the market — can you share the band you're working with?"

Step two. Ask for the salary range before the first interview, every time. Send a short note with your interview confirmation: "Before we meet, could you share the salary band for this role? I want to make sure we're aligned before we both invest time." Frame it as mutual efficiency. It is also your right.

Step three. When the band is wide, use the narrowing question above. If they cannot narrow it, that tells you how they negotiate offers. That information is also valuable.

Step four. If you are applying to roles based in Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania, or Malta, you can cite the directive directly: "Under EU Directive 2023/970, Article 5, salary disclosure before interview is a legal requirement." You do not need to be combative. The legal context does the work.

Step five. If you are in the Netherlands, mark 1 January 2027 in your calendar. That is when the Dutch government has targeted national implementation. From that point, you will have the right to request average pay data for comparable roles within your organisation, broken down by gender, with a statutory two-month response window — confirmed in the Dutch draft bill submitted to the Council of State on 19 January 2026, per Loyens & Loeff.

— FINAL THOUGHT —

The salary history question was never small talk. It was the moment the negotiation began and most candidates handed the advantage to the other side before they realised the game had started.
The law has now changed the opening position.

Candidates who use it will sit down to negotiate from a fundamentally different place. The ones who don't will continue to receive offers built on numbers that were never designed to reflect what they are worth. You now know the difference.

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