Bulgaria wants to shrink the gap between what men and women get paid by changing its law on discrimination. Deputy labour and social policy minister Nadya Klisurska laid out the bill to parliament's human rights, religious denominations and citizens' complaints committee, which is handling it.
The bill would force employers to be open about pay and set up ways to check on this and enforce the law.
Bulgaria needs the law because it has to put EU directive 2023/970 into its own books by 7 June 2026. Miss that deadline, Klisurska warned, and the EU could take Bulgaria to task and fine it.
The directive covers employers, workers and job seekers in both public and private jobs, civil servants included. The goal is to make equal pay for equal work - or work worth the same - a reality, not just words on paper.
In 2024, women in Bulgaria earned about 12% less than men on average, compared with an EU average of 11.1%. The European Parliament said in 2025 that closing the gap by one percentage point would add roughly 0.1% to GDP.
The deputy minister said the problem comes down to structure and law: pay isn't open, employers aren't required to track or report it, and the law as it stands has gaps. The gap has been closing, Klisurska said, but slowly and unevenly.
Women earn less and take more career breaks, she said. They rarely make it into senior, better-paid jobs. That leaves them facing a much higher risk of poverty, especially later in life, she added.
"Pay inequality is bad for the economy and unacceptable for society," Klisurska said. It runs against EU principles of equal treatment, equal opportunity, equal pay and equality between women and men, she said.