Pay transparency is about to be a hot-button topic for HR and compliance teams across the globe, and employers will need to educate themselves to stay out of legal hot water.

As of 2025, there are pay gap reporting requirements across 43 countries and 48 jurisdictions, including the EU's pay transparency directive, which will go into effect in 2027. This doesn't completely include the 14 states with pay transparency laws in the U.S., four of which go into effect this year. Every requirement looks a little different, but at the core, these laws are in place to increase awareness of pay discrepancies and close stubborn gender pay gaps. Given that the U.S. pay gap has only decreased by two cents in over 20 years (it sits at 82 cents for every man's dollar), it's clear that pay transparency legislation has its work cut out, and so do employers.  

"The number of either brand new or modified reporting requirements is set to double by 2027," says Christine Hendrickson, VP of strategic initiatives at Syndio, a global pay solutions company. "Where do you have reporting obligations? What are the [employer] size thresholds? When do you have to report? There's no one-size-fits-all answer. Our goal is to provide employers with a bit of a roadmap."

Syndio launched the Pay Gap Reporting Hub, a resource for multinational companies navigating the evolving pay reporting landscape. U.S. employers with a global workforce can find which countries and states have reporting obligations and if they will be impacted and when.

For example, Japan's amended Act on the Promotion of Female Participation and Career Advancement in the Workplace requires employers with between 101 and 300 employees to analyze and create action plans around gender metrics in the workplace, like the proportion of women in the workforce and the percentage of women in managerial roles. Employers with over 300 employees will also need to submit wage differences between men and women.

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