Where the law forces employers to publish pay
Pay disclosure rules by country: what each rule requires, who it binds, what actually gets published and where to find it.
Pay secrecy is the reason most salary figures are guesses. Where the law forces publication, the numbers stop being self-reported and start being auditable — so it is worth knowing whether your market has such a rule, and what it actually covers.
| Country | Rule | Who it binds | What is published | Where | Status | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| India | Companies Act 2013, section 197(12), with rule 5(1) of the remuneration rules | Every listed company | Median employee pay, the change in it, and permanent headcount | The Board's Report, inside the audited annual report | current | yes |
| India | The market regulator's sustainability reporting requirement | The thousand largest listed companies by market value | Median pay split by gender, for staff and for directors separately | The sustainability report, inside the same annual report | current | yes |
| United Kingdom | The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018 | Quoted companies with more than 250 UK employees | Pay at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentile of UK staff | The directors' remuneration report | current | yes |
| United States | The securities regulator's pay ratio rule | Public reporting companies, with several classes exempt | Median employee total pay, and the ratio to the chief executive | The proxy statement or annual filing | current | yes |
| Australia | The Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012 | Employers with 100 or more employees | Median and average pay gaps, and average pay by quartile | The agency's public data explorer, searchable by employer | current | yes |
| Spain | The equal pay register regulation of 2020 | Every employer, whatever its size | Nothing publicly. The register is internal, and a worker without representation sees only percentage gaps | Held by the employer; disclosed to worker representatives where they exist | current | yes |
| Brazil | The salary equality law of 2023 | Private employers with 100 or more employees | What women are paid as a share of what men are paid, within five broad occupational groups | The labour ministry's portal, searched by the employer's tax number | current | yes |
| Japan | The women's workplace participation act | Employers with more than 300 employees, and more than 100 from April 2026 | The gender wage gap, split by permanent and non-permanent staff | The company's own site, or the labour ministry's database | current | yes |
| European Union | The pay transparency directive | Member states first, then employers above 100 workers | Pay gaps by sex, broken down by category of worker | National law, once each member state has written it | coming | yes |