The draft is in public consultation until 2 December 2026. It is not law yet, and none of this applies right now.
It is not yet known when the law will come into force. We update this page at every stage.
Pick one to see what changes for you.
Yes. The employer must tell you the amount or the pay range before the interview.
The range is the lowest and the highest amount the employer offers. Along with the pay, they must tell you what other payments come with the job, such as a Christmas bonus, holiday allowance (regres), Easter bonus or commuting allowance. They can put it in the job ad or let you know some other way.
Draft, Art. 139.e
No, neither your current nor your previous pay. But they can ask what you expect. To know what to answer, compare yourself with colleagues on app.tabu.hr.
You don’t have to answer that question. The same goes for any question that has nothing to do with the job you’re applying for, such as whether you’re married or plan to have children.
Draft, Art. 25
You can find out the average pay of the women and men at your employer who do the same work as you, or work of equal value, but not the pay of any one person.
This right applies in every company, whatever its headcount. You get your own pay level (annual gross pay and gross hourly pay) and those averages. You also get the annual amount of your Christmas bonus, holiday allowance and similar payments, along with the averages for women and for men.
The employer must reply in writing within 60 days. If the answer seems inaccurate or incomplete, you can ask for a further explanation, which they must give within 30 days. You can send the request yourself or through the works council, a trade union representative or the Gender Equality Ombudsperson.
If the employer asks you to, you may use this information only to exercise your right to equal pay.
Draft, Art. 139.f and 139.l
Yes, and no contract can forbid it.
A clause in a contract or in the employment rules that forbids it will be null and void. So a clause saying you may not tell anyone your pay will no longer be valid. Your employer must not harm you in any way because of it.
Draft, Art. 139.f
By criteria your employer must make available to you.
Jobs are assessed by skills, responsibility, effort and working conditions, in the same way for women and men. In a company with 50 or more employees, the conditions for promotion and pay rises must also be available to you.
Draft, Art. 139.b to 139.d
You can ask for a comparison with a colleague of the other sex, and if it ends up in court, the employer must prove there was no discrimination.
The employer must compare the value of your work with the work of the person you’re comparing yourself with and, within 60 days, explain the criteria used to set your pay and your pay rises. In court, it is enough for you to show that discrimination is likely.
Neither the request nor a lawsuit may hold back your promotion, and neither can be grounds for dismissal.
Draft, Art. 135, 139.b and 139.n
If you can’t use your annual leave because of sick leave or maternity or parental leave, you keep it for longer.
You will be able to use it until 31 December of the following year. If that’s still not possible for the same reasons, the employer must let you take it no later than 15 months after the end of the year it’s for. Today, the deadline after sick leave is 30 June of the following year.
The same applies to adoption leave and to leave for caring for a child with developmental disabilities. If the sick leave or other leave lasts the whole year, only the statutory minimum of four weeks carries over for that year.
Draft, Art. 84
You can see it in the Tabu app, on the Gender pay gap page.
See the gender pay gap · New to Tabu? Take the survey
This is a picture of the Croatian IT market, not of one company: the law measures the gap within a category of workers at one employer. The data comes from the Tabu survey, which people fill in themselves.
Pick your headcount to see what you have to do.
Pay before the interview. Tell candidates the amount or the pay range before the job interview.
You can put it in the job ad or let the candidate know some other way, and candidates also have the right to ask for it. The range is the lowest and the highest amount you offer. Along with the pay, state what other payments come with the job, such as a Christmas bonus, holiday allowance (regres), Easter bonus or commuting allowance.
Draft, Art. 139.e
No questions about previous pay. You may not ask candidates about their current or previous pay.
You may ask what they expect. For this offence, the company as a legal entity pays 5,000 to 9,000 EUR, and the responsible person in the company separately pays 650 to 1,000 EUR.
Draft, Art. 25 and 228
Gender-neutral job titles. Job titles and job ads must apply equally to women and men.
In Croatian, for example, “programer/programerka” rather than just “programer”. For this offence, the company as a legal entity pays 1,500 to 4,000 EUR, and the responsible person in the company separately pays 200 to 500 EUR.
Draft, Art. 139.e and 227
Job evaluation. You assess every job by skills, responsibility, effort and working conditions.
The criteria must be objective and must not be based on sex, directly or indirectly. The ministry will provide a methodology to help with this assessment, especially for companies with fewer than 20 employees.
Draft, Art. 139.c and 139.d
Pay criteria in the employment contract. Employees must be able to see easily how pay is set, and you write the criteria into the employment contract.
The criteria are what you use to assess the value of work and set pay, and they must be objective and gender-neutral. Without employment rules (pravilnik o radu), you assess the value of each job separately and agree the pay on that basis. If the criteria are already set by a regulation or a collective agreement, you don’t have to write them in separately. Employees must also have access to the criteria for the Christmas bonus, holiday allowance and similar payments.
Draft, Art. 139.b
Pay criteria in the employment rules. Employees must be able to see easily how pay is set, and you set the criteria in your employment rules (pravilnik o radu).
The criteria are what you use to assess the value of work and set pay, and they must be objective and gender-neutral. The employment rules set them for all employees and also lay down how the value of work is assessed. If the criteria are already set by a regulation or a collective agreement, you don’t have to write them in separately. Employees must also have access to the criteria for the Christmas bonus, holiday allowance and similar payments.
Draft, Art. 139.b
Replying to employee requests. When an employee asks for the average pay of women and men, you reply in writing within 60 days.
If the employee asks for a further explanation, you give it within 30 days. Once a year, by 31 May, you inform employees of this right. If the answer would reveal the pay of a person who can be identified, at the employee’s request you hand the data to the works council, a trade union representative or the Gender Equality Ombudsperson.
Draft, Art. 139.f and 139.l
Conditions for promotion. You set the conditions for promotion and pay rises, and employees must be able to see them easily. (Draft, Art. 139.b)
Reporting is not mandatory. With fewer than 100 employees, you don’t have to report on the pay gap between women and men.
You can report voluntarily, and then all the rules on reporting and joint pay assessment apply to you.
Draft, Art. 139.h
Reporting every three years. You submit pay data to the National Pay Transparency System (NSTP), for the first time by 7 June 2031.
The threshold is based on your average number of employees in the previous year. By 7 June you submit pay data for the previous year: base pay, allowances, the variable part and other payments. FINA, the state financial agency, compiles a report from it, and you download it within 15 days of being notified. The ministry and FINA publish the report without the breakdown by category of workers. You give the full report, with the gaps by category of workers, to all employees and to the works council.
Draft, Art. 139.g to 139.j and Art. 35 of the draft
Reporting every three years. You submit pay data to the National Pay Transparency System (NSTP), for the first time by 7 June 2028.
The threshold is based on your average number of employees in the previous year. By 7 June you submit pay data for the previous year: base pay, allowances, the variable part and other payments. FINA, the state financial agency, compiles a report from it, and you download it within 15 days of being notified. The ministry and FINA publish the report without the breakdown by category of workers. You give the full report, with the gaps by category of workers, to all employees and to the works council.
Draft, Art. 139.g to 139.j and Art. 35 of the draft
Reporting every year. You submit pay data to the National Pay Transparency System (NSTP), for the first time by 7 June 2028.
The threshold is based on your average number of employees in the previous year. By 7 June you submit pay data for the previous year: base pay, allowances, the variable part and other payments. FINA, the state financial agency, compiles a report from it, and you download it within 15 days of being notified. The ministry and FINA publish the report without the breakdown by category of workers. You give the full report, with the gaps by category of workers, to all employees and to the works council.
Draft, Art. 139.g to 139.j and Art. 35 of the draft
You have six months to justify it or fix it, otherwise a joint pay assessment with the works council follows.
You start the joint pay assessment within the next 30 days, and if there is no works council, you carry out the assessment yourself. You must remove the gaps no later than nine months after downloading the report.
You must remove any unjustified gap in the report within six months, even one below 5%. The threshold only triggers the joint pay assessment.
Draft, Art. 139.j and 139.k
Four months for the employment rules and five for employment contracts, from the day the law comes into force.
Within six months, the minister adopts the rules for the NSTP (what is submitted and how the gap is calculated), and FINA must set up the system by 31 December 2027.
Art. 35 of the draft
Fines go up to 9,000 EUR, and in an equal pay dispute the burden of proof is on you.
For a legal entity, 5,000 to 9,000 EUR for most transparency obligations and 1,500 to 4,000 EUR for job titles, and the responsible person in the company separately pays 200 to 1,000 EUR.
A company that has not met its transparency obligations bears the burden of proof, unless it proves that the failure was not intentional and did not materially affect employees’ rights. In public procurement, the contracting authority may exclude a company with an unjustified gap of 5% or more.
Draft, Art. 135, 139.m, 227 and 228
Tabu shows how salaries are distributed for the same position and level in the Croatian IT market.
Click a statement to check it.
Myth. The ad is just one option. The deadline is before the job interview.
True. This right applies in every company, whatever its headcount.
Myth. You see averages for your category of workers, not individual salaries.
Myth. The first deadline is 2028 for companies with 150 or more employees, and 2031 for those with 100 to 149.
Myth. That 6.6% is the gap between all women and all men, whatever their job. It is Eurostat’s unadjusted pay gap for 2024, while the law looks at the gap within a category of workers at one employer.
True. A ban in a contract or in the employment rules will be null and void.
Myth. The threshold only triggers a procedure. Equal pay for equal work applies below it too.
Have a comment on the draft? You can leave one on e-Savjetovanja, the government’s consultation portal (in Croatian), until 2 December 2026.
The draft also changes the rules on work through digital platforms and the protection of workers on military service and in civil protection. This page doesn’t cover those.
Source: Draft Act on Amendments to the Labour Act (Nacrt prijedloga zakona o izmjenama i dopunama Zakona o radu), e-Savjetovanja. The draft is published in Croatian only. Last checked: 3 November 2026.
This is a simplified overview in our own translation, not legal advice.
