GenEq glossary
The vocabulary of pay transparency reporting under Directive 2023/970 and the Slovak Equal Pay Act — categories of workers, work of equal value, the unexplained gap and the terms around them, defined for the people who have to file.
22 terms
Legislation
7Burden of proof
Where an employer has not met its transparency obligations, it falls on the employer to show there was no discrimination.
Directive 2023/970
The EU pay transparency directive that member states must transpose, and which the Slovak act implements.
Equal Pay Act (76/2026 Z. z.)
The Slovak act transposing Directive 2023/970, in force since 7 June 2026 and the first full transposition in the EU.
Headcount threshold
The employee count that decides whether an employer reports, and how often.
Joint pay assessment
The assessment an employer must carry out when a category shows an unexplained gap of 5% or more.
Reporting period
The window of pay data a report covers. The first Slovak period runs 1 August to 31 December 2026.
Right to information
An employee's right to ask for their pay level and the average levels for work of equal value, broken down by sex.
Equal work
6Categories of workers
Groups of employees performing equal work or work of equal value, and the level at which reporting is done.
Equal work
The same work, or work of the same nature, against which pay is compared.
Job evaluation
The systematic assessment of roles against defined factors, and the foundation of every category and comparison.
Soft skills
Social and communication ability — the fifth Slovak evaluation factor, absent from the directive.
Statutory evaluation factors
The five factors a Slovak job evaluation must consider: complexity, responsibility, effort, working conditions and soft skills.
Work of equal value
Different work judged to be of equal value under objective evaluation criteria.
Pay data
4Ordinary pay
Base salary and regular fixed pay, reported separately from variable components.
Pay quartiles
The workforce split into four equal bands by pay, showing the share of men and women in each.
Pay structure
The framework of bands and criteria that determines what a role is paid, aligned to the evaluation factors.
Variable components
Bonus, commission, allowances and other non-fixed pay, reported separately and often where the gap is widest.
Analysis
5Cost to close
The annualised cost of raising pay to remove the unexplained gap for the employees affected.
Gender pay gap
The difference between the average pay of men and of women, expressed as a percentage.
Mean and median
Two required views of the same gap: the average, and the midpoint. They answer different questions.
Pay gap decomposition
Splitting a raw gap into the parts that grade, tenure and hours explain, and the part that remains.
Unexplained pay gap
The part of a gap that objective, gender-neutral factors do not account for. The part that has to be answered for.
These terms describe work you have to do this year.
The first reporting period is running. A baseline on one pay period tells you which of these apply to you and which do not.