Under the incidence of imposing gender pay equality, a law voted in April by the European Parliament is expected to prompt a huge impact on the Romanian labor market, through one of the provisions that explicitly prohibit the secrecy of salary offers and oblige companies to make public individual payment on different job segments.

The text establishes, inter alia, the right of employees and candidates to receive clear and complete information on individual and average salary levels, broken down by gender. It also establishes a ban on wage secrecy, through measures prohibiting contractual clauses that restrict employees from disclosing information about their salaries or seeking information about the same category or other categories of workers’ salaries (source).

The European Parliament’s approach is in fact overlapping with the latest trend in the labor market, namely the transparency of job offers in job advertisements, which is starting to put pressure on employers. As a result, the Employer Branding strategy will now have to include the possibility to publish the salary component when job announcements are posted, perhaps even before the text of the law in the European Parliament is implemented in Romanian legislation.

Several surveys already published in the media outline this new trend, which will require an effort of internal and external communication as complex as it is delicate. In order to make public job offers for candidates, employers must ensure that they do not demotivate current, loyal employees – a problem that does not exist in organizations where salaries are confidential and are not disclosed in job advertisements.

“It is obvious, however, that in areas where there is a shortage of candidates, those employers who will show openness in this area will have what is called quality Employer Value Proposition: a transparent system in which work at the same professional level is paid fairly. Internal communication strategies will have to be drastically revised to explain to people the change and its benefits “, says Lori Vişa, general manager of V + O Communication – a communication agency specialized in internal communication and Employer Branding. “Along with work-from-home, inspirational leadership and a few other favorite facilities, the transparency of salaries will give companies that adopt it a new lease of life in their efforts to build Employer Branding campaigns,” says Lori Vişa.