Anti-Discrimination & Pay Transparency

Legal position in Austria (brief note)

The articles in this hub argue predominantly on the basis of German law (AGG, German Pay Transparency Act (EntgTranspG), Federal Labour Court (BAG) case law). Austria has no AGG; the Austrian Equal Treatment Act (Gleichbehandlungsgesetz, GlBG) applies instead. The assessment patterns are comparable; the sections, amounts and deadlines are not:

• Prohibition of discrimination: § 3 GlBG for gender, § 17 GlBG for ethnic origin, religion or belief, age and sexual orientation — instead of §§ 1 and 7 AGG.
• Burden of proof: § 22 AGG is replaced by the prima facie showing under § 12(12) GlBG (gender) and § 26(12) GlBG (the remaining grounds): the person concerned makes the facts of the discrimination credible, and the employer must prove that, weighing all the circumstances, another motive was probably decisive or that a justification exists.
• Compensation with minimum amounts: instead of the ceiling of three months' salary where a candidate would not have been hired in any event (§ 15(2) AGG), § 12 GlBG (and § 26 GlBG) set statutory minimums: at least two months' pay if the position would have been obtained in a discrimination-free selection, up to EUR 500 if the damage consists solely in the application not being considered (§ 12(1) GlBG), as well as at least EUR 1,000 for harassment (§ 12(11) and § 26(11) GlBG).
• Deadlines: § 15 GlBG (and § 29 GlBG) instead of the two-month deadline in § 15(4) AGG: six months from the rejection of the application or promotion for asserting claims in court, one year for harassment and three years for sexual harassment (§ 15(1) GlBG) — but only 14 days to challenge a dismissal or summary dismissal. Pay and material claims are subject to the three-year limitation period in § 1486 ABGB.
• Job advertisements: § 9 GlBG requires gender-neutral job advertisements. Breaches carry administrative penalties under § 10 GlBG (employers: a warning for the first breach, thereafter a fine of up to EUR 360 imposed by the district administrative authority (Bezirksverwaltungsbehörde)) — a penalty provision the AGG does not have.
• Responsible bodies are the Ombud for Equal Treatment (GAW), the Equal Treatment Commission (Gleichbehandlungskommission, GBK) and the Labour and Social Court (Arbeits- und Sozialgericht) — not the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes) and not the BAG. An application to the GBK suspends the deadlines for asserting claims in court (§ 15(2) and § 29(2) GlBG).
• Common framework: the EU Pay Transparency Directive 2023/970 had to be transposed by 7 June 2026; that deadline has passed. In Germany, as at 17 August 2026, not even a ministerial draft had been published (BT-Drs. 21/7026); in Austria, neither a ministerial draft nor a government bill can be found at federal level. The right to information, gender-neutral job advertisements and the Joint Pay Assessment therefore take effect against private employers only with the respective national transposition act.