Starting in 2026, the EU Pay Transparency Directive becomes enforceable – and many companies aren’t ready. Scaleups and mid-sized businesses often have salary structures that evolved organically: inconsistent, hard to explain, and increasingly difficult to defend. The new directive changes the rules: the hiring process must include salary information, employees can request pay comparisons, and companies without a clear system will face scrutiny fast.
This workshop is led by gradar – a Düsseldorf-based HR-tech scaleup that has navigated this journey itself. Founded in 2014 and now serving over 500 clients worldwide, gradar specialises in analytical job evaluation and compensation architecture. The session combines that real-world scaleup experience with deep regulatory expertise, cutting through the compliance noise to focus on what actually matters.
Workshop agenda:
– What the EU Pay Transparency Directive actually requires (and what it doesn’t)
– Core principles of fair pay structures: job evaluation, salary bands, midpoints
– Handling legacy pay: what to do when existing salaries don’t fit the new system
– Open Q&A and peer exchange The session is designed for founders, HR leads, and people managers at scaleups, corporates, and SMEs who want to build compensation structures fit for the future – without breaking the bank.
Hosted by a Düsseldorf company that has done exactly that. Speaker: Philipp Schuch, Founder and CEO of gradar – a Düsseldorf HR-tech scaleup and one of Europe’s leading platforms for job evaluation, salary benchmarking and pay transparency.