Custom pay gap analysis and reporting tool
The EU Pay Transparency Directive requires employers with 100 or more employees to report on the gender pay gap. Member states had to transpose the directive by 7 June 2026. In the Netherlands, the bill is currently before the House of Representatives, with 1 January 2027 as the intended date. According to the government, employers with at least 150 employees will be the first to report, by 7 June 2028 at the latest, covering 2027. Appfront builds the tool that analyses your pay data by category and prepares the report.
What is a pay gap analysis with a reporting tool?
A pay gap analysis with a reporting tool converts an employer's pay data into the figures the directive requires. Article 9 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 lists them: the mean and median pay gap, the same figures for complementary or variable components, the proportion of women and men receiving such components, the proportion in each pay quartile, and the pay gap by category of workers, broken down by basic salary and complementary components. Management confirms the accuracy, after consulting the workers' representatives, who are given access to the methods used.
Under the directive, employers with 250 or more employees report every year, employers with 150 to 249 employees every three years, and employers with 100 to 149 employees every three years from 2031. The Dutch bill assumes a first report from employers with at least 150 employees by 7 June 2028 at the latest, and in 2031 for those with 100 to 150 employees. If a category shows a difference of at least 5% that you cannot justify with objective, gender-neutral criteria and do not correct within six months, you carry out a joint pay assessment together with the workers' representatives. The bill also provides for an objective system for valuing and grading jobs.
In practice, payroll sits in one package, job grading in the HR system and the explanation of exceptions in emails and notes. We build custom because every employer has different roles, collective agreements and pay components. The directive allows member states to draw up part of the figures themselves from administrative data, and the Dutch government wants to align with payroll records and tax returns. The figures per category of employee can only be produced by you, and that is where most of the work lies. Until the law is passed, the tool follows the text of the bill.
From your systems
Payroll and HR together.
Per category
Equal or equivalent work.
Prepared
Reporting and evaluation.
How we build your pay gap analysis with reporting tool
We start with your pay: which systems you use, which collective agreements and pay components apply, how roles are currently valued and who will need to sign off. Then we build a first analysis covering one calendar year, because that shows you straight away where the differences lie, and we discuss the grouping into categories with HR. The works council can follow along. Reporting, recording justifications and preparing a joint pay assessment follow once that goes well. After that, we keep the tool up to date if the law is passed or the implementation changes.
Systems, collective agreements, roles.
One calendar year.
With justification.
Go-live, monitoring, and maintenance when things change.
What a pay gap analysis with reporting tool actually does
The components below appear in almost every pay gap analysis. Which ones you need depends on your size and on the systems you already use.
Retrieving
From payroll and HR.
Categories
Job grading.
Indicators
Mean and median.
Flagging
Gap of 5% or more.
Justification
Criteria recorded.
Reporting
Ready for the board.
Who we build a pay gap analysis with reporting tool for
The tool is intended for employers who will fall under the reporting obligation, and for service providers who do this for multiple employers. The more roles and pay components you have, the more it delivers.
Employers
Ready for the first report.
HR departments
Grouping and analysis.
Works councils
Insight into the method.
Service providers
For multiple clients.
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This page is about pay gap analysis and reporting under the Pay Transparency Directive. If you are looking for software that monitors HR rules in general, see our page on HR compliance software. For a custom HR system, see our page on custom HR software, for payroll tax returns our page on payroll tax return integration, and for payroll processing for clients our page on payroll processing software. You can read about our approach at building software.
Why Appfront for your pay gap analysis with reporting tool?
A category grouped in such a way that differences disappear, a bonus that falls outside the analysis, or a justification that nobody can find when the works council asks about it, undermines the report and trust in it. That is what we build around: figures drawn from your own systems, a transparent grouping and method, and every justification recorded.
From the source
Payroll and HR integrated.
Traceable
Transparent method.
Visible early
Gaps per category.
Security and privacy in a pay gap analysis with reporting tool
Pay data is personal data, and in small categories it can easily be traced back to an individual. The tool therefore works with role-based permissions: HR sees the analysis at individual level, while the board and the works council see the results per category. Anyone who changes or views something is logged by name and time.
The tool runs in a European data centre, with encrypted connections and storage and daily backups. Integrations with payroll and HR systems retrieve only the fields needed for the analysis, using a dedicated account and the permissions your administrators grant.
Frequently asked questions about a pay gap analysis with a reporting tool
Questions that HR managers, directors and works councils ask before getting started.
It retrieves pay data from your payroll and HR systems, groups employees into categories and calculates the indicators required by the Pay Transparency Directive. It then prepares the report, including the justification of any differences.
The directive had to be transposed by 7 June 2026, but the Dutch bill is still before the House of Representatives. The intended date of entry into force is 1 January 2027. According to the government, employers with at least 150 employees will be the first to report, by 7 June 2028 at the latest, covering 2027.
Under the directive, employers with 100 or more employees, with the frequency depending on size. Employers with 250 or more employees report every year, smaller ones every three years. Smaller employers may report voluntarily.
When a category shows a difference of at least 5% that you cannot justify with objective, gender-neutral criteria and do not correct within six months of reporting. You carry out that assessment together with the employee representatives.
A group of employees doing the same or equivalent work, grouped on objective, gender-neutral criteria such as skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions. This grouping has a major influence on the outcome. The tool records how you have grouped them.
Under the directive, management confirms the accuracy of the report after consulting the employee representatives, who are given access to the methods used. In a joint pay assessment, you work together. The tool gives the works council insight into the method and the results per category.
Employers with many job roles, multiple collective agreements or a lot of variable pay, and service providers with multiple clients. If you have a straightforward pay structure and a single payroll package with good reporting, that may well be enough.
Want to see your pay gap before the report is due?
Tell us how many employees you have, which payroll and HR systems you use and how roles are currently grouped. We'll show you how a tool can carry out the analysis.