Cyprus has EU’s lowest rate of salary disclosure in job adverts

Cyprus trails EU as salary transparency rises across job advertsCyprus had the European Union’s lowest share of job advertisements disclosing salaries in August, with just 0.4 per cent of vacancies listing pay, according to an analysis by compensation benchmarking platform TalentUp and compensation and pay transparency practice Esperta Pay. The analysis covered 1,194,497 job advertisements published across the EU’s 27 member states between May and August 2026, around the June 7 deadline for member states to transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive into national law. Across the bloc, the proportion of job advertisements displaying salary information more than doubled over the four-month period, rising from 10.5 per cent in May to 22.8 per cent in August. However, more than three-quarters of EU job advertisements still did not disclose salaries by the end of the period, highlighting the uneven pace at which pay transparency is being introduced across Europe. The report found that the increase in salary disclosure across the EU came after the June 7 transposition deadline, rather than in the weeks leading up to it. Pay transparency varies sharply across Europe The directive requires employers to inform candidates of the initial salary or salary range before pay negotiations take place, and prohibits employers from asking candidates about their previous earnings. However, each member state determines how the rules will be applied nationally, meaning the directive does not necessarily require salaries to appear directly in every job advertisement. Italy has opted for the more visible approach of including salary information in job adverts and was among the countries that transposed the directive on time. Its share of advertisements displaying pay rose from 13.4 per cent in May to 45.9 per cent in August, more than tripling over the period and reaching roughly twice the EU average. The overall EU trend was also upward, with salary disclosure increasing to 15 per cent in June and 20.7 per cent in July before reaching 22.8 per cent in August. The pace of change differed considerably between member states, with Lithuania recording a 69.4 percentage-point increase and Sweden a rise of 45.7 points. By contrast, France’s share fell by 5.6 percentage points, while Romania recorded a decline of 16.6 points. Spain and Italy had already overtaken France in the share of advertisements displaying salaries, while Germany, the EU’s largest market, remained among the bloc’s least transparent countries. Spain had not yet specified how it would implement the directive, according to the report. The findings underline the differences in how salary information is being disclosed across the EU, with Cyprus recording the lowest rate in August despite the broader increase in transparency across the bloc. What is the salary landscape like in Cyprus? Separate figures from the Cyprus Statistical Service (Cystat) show that median gross monthly earnings in Cyprus rose by 3.8 per cent to €1,953 in 2025, while average earnings increased by 4.3 per cent to €2,591. The €638 difference between the two measures highlights how the average can be pulled upwards by higher earners, making the median a more representative indicator of what a typical employee receives. The largest group of employees, accounting for 13 per cent of the workforce, earned between €1,000 and €1,249 a month, while 24.2 per cent earned less than €1,500. Average earnings varied significantly by sector, ranging from €956 in agriculture, forestry and fishing to €5,038 in financial and insurance activities. Median monthly earnings also differed by citizenship, reaching €2,145 for Cypriot employees and €1,597 for non-Cypriot employees. The figures further showed gender differences across income brackets, with women more heavily represented in the €1,000 to €1,499 ranges, while men accounted for a higher proportion of employees earning at least €6,000 a month.