How Generations Z and Alpha see pay transparency and equal-pay rights

In 2026, EU member states should implement Directive (EU) 2023/970 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 May 2023 to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms. It aims to reduce the pay gap between women and men. This will be a significant change in national labour markets, and it will not result solely from the directive itself and will not only concern the pay gap phenomenon.

In recent years, the discussion on pay transparency and equal pay has ceased to be the exclusive domain of HR managers. It has slowly been becoming part of creating a company’s value, image and the way it operates and attracts talent. Of course, it is not that previous generations of employees did not attach importance to this aspect of employment. However, it seems that newer generations that enter the labour market increasingly expect fair and transparent remuneration policies. So-called platform work, performed by employees who often do not know the criteria used to determine their remuneration, is an exception to the increasingly common rule. According to this rule, new generations of employees expect pay transparency, equality and fairness. This is a result of the young people’s lifestyle, not ideology. It is a generational change that influences company strategies, legal regulations and the social perception of work.

Generation Z: raised in a culture of openness
Generation Z’s sensitivity to economic justice stems from its social experiences. Those born in the 1990s grew up in a world where information is absolutely and universally accessible. Talking about money was no longer as taboo as it was for their parents. Paradoxically, social media, which emphasize differences between people and promote individualism, have caused a growing awareness of inequality between people. Gen Zers wanted to know why someone earns what they earn or pays what they pay. They considered such information to be natural. As a result, in adult life, they treat salary transparency as an obvious element of the employee-employer relationship. Gen Zers also grew up during intense debates about the gender pay gap, discrimination against minorities and economic inequalities, which makes them more sensitive to economic injustice than their parents.

Research on Generation Z perceptions conducted in Poland and around the world indicates that trust in their company (and, conversely, the lack of trust) is one of the key emotions that young employees associate with their employment. This mainly concerns the feeling that Gen Zers are fairly remunerated and that this must be verifiable. Young respondents see salary transparency primarily as a benefit for themselves: a greater sense of fairness, the possibility of negotiation and clarity of promotion rules. On the other hand, the benefits for the organisation, such as increased commitment and better retention, are secondary for them. Hence, it is not surprising that Generation Z supports the introduction of pay transparency and considers it not only a tool for reducing the gender pay gap, but also an obvious and desirable element of companies’ pay policies. These are the conclusions of global labour market research conducted by international consultancies and research centres. In this research, Generation Z declares that unfair pay (pay inequality) and unclear remuneration and promotion rules are one of the main reasons for changing employers. Young employees do not hesitate to ‘vote with their feet’.

This generation believes that business ethics are important and that it’s a key factor in evaluating the company they work for – whether it rewards its employees fairly and transparently. What’s more, employees from this generation seem to attach greater importance to the correlation between fair pay and a sense of purpose at work. They are not prepared to build a long-term relationship with an organisation they do not trust in this area, and they are quite demanding in this respect. For Generation Z, salary transparency does not end with the publication of salary ranges. Clear, understandable and measurable criteria for promotion, pay rises and bonus payment are equally important. Young employees want to know which skills are rewarded, which behaviour leads to promotion, what the assessment process looks like, and who makes pay decisions and on what basis.

It seems that demanding transparency from employers has become a cultural code. For Generation Z, ‘confidential’, arbitrary and poorly justified decisions by superiors are unacceptable. In their eyes, the lack of transparency is a sign that the organisation may be acting unfairly – even if this is not actually the case.

Generation Alpha: will the future be even more transparent?
Generation Alpha – people born after 2010 – are just entering their teenage years, so there are no hard data on their attitudes towards pay. However, several cultural trends can be identified that are likely to shape their expectations.

Today’s teenagers are growing up in a complete digital world with instant access to data, regardless of their quality or reliability. Education systems have not yet developed educational pathways where young people can learn how to navigate the jungle of information and how to classify it. Instead, they are accustomed to the algorithmic logic of seemingly clear rules, quick assessments, simple rankings and unambiguous recommendations. Hence, they are likely to be more susceptible to information about wage inequality.

Like Gen Zers, they are also accustomed to the absence of economic taboos. They observe open discussions about earnings on social media and treat them as obvious areas for sharing information. After all, many of them are raised in environments that promote equality and inclusiveness, and accept them as cultural norms rather than demands for a better life.

One might therefore venture to assume that Generation Alpha’s expectations for transparency and equal pay will be even stronger than those of Generation Z. Indeed, for Gen Zers, non-transparency may be incomprehensible – something that contradicts the logic of the world in which they are growing up.

Therefore, business, you should change.
Everything indicates that the generations of employees who have just entered the labour market, or are about to enter it, do not treat pay transparency and equal pay as a privilege or as the goal of incomprehensible EU legislation. They simply believe that this is an obvious standard of operation, and any deviations from this standard are an aberration. I do not think this is a passing fad. Rather, I believe it is a lasting cultural change that is redefining workplace relationships. In a world where free access to information is a given, concealing remuneration rules is becoming an anachronism.

It therefore seems obvious that open companies that understand this change will gain a competitive advantage. Those that ignore it will lose their best people to more transparent competitors.

This reflection is already quite common among my clients (I am a labour lawyer). The question they ask themselves today is not whether to build transparent and fair remuneration and benefit systems, but how to make them sustainable and convincing. Promoting pay transparency does not mean disclosing salaries as such. It is a multi-stage task that involves reviewing the job architecture, valuing work based on current and objective criteria, and restructuring bonus and incentive systems. Finally (and crucially, in my opinion), it involves a thoroughly thought-out, comprehensive and credible communication strategy towards employees: those who control the remuneration system and those who receive remuneration. Given the specific characteristics of the new generations entering the labour market, it is most important that they feel they are being remunerated transparently and fairly.