Limits of Pay Transparency: Federal Labour Court Stops Company-Wide Pay Comparisons (8 AZR 83/25)

In its new judgment (case no. 8 AZR 83/25), the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) clearly defined the limits of pay transparency. A right to information is strictly confined to the individual establishment (Betrieb), even where remuneration systems are uniform across a group. The wording of the statute takes precedence over a differing formulation in the explanatory memorandum. The court also set a temporal limit, according to which information may in principle be requested only for the last completed calendar year. Retroactive information covering several past years is not provided for. This rule serves to keep the administrative burden for employers and works councils within reasonable limits.

When faced with requests for information, examine carefully the reference to the establishment and the time horizon. You do not have to compile group-wide mountains of data, but merely compare the figures of the specific establishment for the exact previous year.