Pay equity

Global Pay Transparency Report

Pay transparency under pressure: How ready are employers?

This report highlights the growing importance of pay transparency for organizations worldwide and the need for decisive action. It outlines rising employee and candidate expectations. It details the challenges involved, noting regional differences. The report also offers a playbook to align pay transparency efforts with global business goals, starting with leadership alignment.

Pay transparency is reshaping how organizations attract, retain and engage talent worldwide. Mercer’s 2025 Global pay transparency survey — the largest study of its kind — reveals critical insights into evolving market expectations, company practices and emerging challenges. It covers market expectations, company actions, the impact of technology, risk management and the role of benefits in pay transparency.

77% of organizations globally are developing a pay transparency strategy

only 36% of the Belgium organisations are prepared for the impact of global pay transparency requirements.

Pay transparency is no longer just a compliance checkbox — it is a strategic imperative. While many companies still treat pay transparency narrowly, focusing only on meeting legal requirements, Mercer’s research reveals a growing movement of employers using these regulations as a catalyst for broader change:

70%

of respondents anticipate that pay transparency will improve pay equity within the company

63%

of organizations understand that pay transparency is an expectation of candidates

58%

of companies say pay transparency is an expectation of employees

These forward-thinking organizations are re-evaluating how they design, explain and govern pay. They are building clearer structures, stronger narratives and greater trust with employees and candidates.

Today, employees and candidates are asking more direct questions:

How is my pay determined?
How does it compare to my peers?
What is my future earning potential?

Pay transparency is far more than a theoretical ideal — it is a real test of how prepared employers are to stand behind their pay decisions.

Employees who believe they are paid fairly are 60% more committed to their organizations.

Effective investment in pay transparency hinges on three main elements:

ensuring executives and business leaders share a clear understanding of their organization’s transparency goals.

establishing consistent frameworks that clearly define roles, levels and pay ranges, making them easy to analyze and communicate.

implementing effective tools that unify pay, benefits and workforce data, enabling seamless insights.

Global Pay Transparency will be ignited in June 2026 by the EU - beyond compliance organizations that thrive will use this opportunity to streamline data, organizational structure, policies and practices to drive key strategic initiatives and inclusion

Lucye Provera

Fair Pay Leader Europe & UK, Mercer

Pay Transparency Readiness in Belgium:

Only 36% of the Belgium organisations are prepared for the impact of global pay transparency requirements.
Only 26% of organizations report increasing remediation or compliance budget in response to evolving pay transparency regulations.

How organizations are evolving their Job Architecture and Pay Equity

57%

of organizations are enhancing job architecture for greater consistency and alignment with work being performed

38%

of organizations are enhancing job architecture to support job definition purposes, e.g., category of worker

66%

of organizations are testing pay gaps by job, job level, and / or category of worker

38%

of organizations are making employee pay adjustments to align with the external market, internal pay compression, and / or pay equity considerations

While legal compliance is the top driver of pay transparency strategy, understanding global legislation is a top challenge

91%

of organizations state legal compliance is a key driver of pay transparency

57%

of organizations consider understanding global legislation as a main challenge; 55% report aligning/educating leaders is the key challenge

What is shared?

53% of organisations share or plan to share pay information both internally and externally.

Pay information shared internally

Currently shared:

45%

Pay philosophy or strategy, e.g., market positioning philosophy

42%

Pay policies, e.g., how pay and pay growth is determined

Will share only where legislatively required in next 12 months

65%

Average pay of men and women in the job or level available to employees

58%

Pay equity commitments or gaps (adjusted pay gaps)

50%

Pay gaps, unadjusted (gender and/or ethnicity)

45%

Full pay ranges included in internal job postings

48%

Hiring pay ranges included in internal job postings

42%

Initial hiring rate included in internal job postings

15% of organizations integrate benefits valuation inot total rewards reporting

41% plan to incorporate

30% consider benefits separately

About the author(s)

Gordon Frost

Global Rewards Leader, Mercer

Lucye Provera

Fair Pay Leader Europe & UK, Mercer

Tauseef Rahman

Global Pay Transparency Solutions Leader

Sean MacHale

Partner, Europe and UK Rewards Leader, Mercer

Lucy Brown

Fair Pay and DEI Leader UK, Mercer

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