Is job evaluation required by law in Portugal?

What Portugal's law requires

Portugal attacks pay inequality with a feedback loop rather than a mandated method. The Código do Trabalho establishes equal pay for equal work and work of equal value, with equal-value comparison drawing on criteria such as qualifications, experience, responsibility, and the physical and mental demands of the work. Law No. 60/2018 then built the enforcement machinery around that standard.

The mechanism works in three steps. Each year, the government produces statistical reporting on pay differences — company-level gender pay gap information derived from Portugal's uniquely rich single-report (relatório único) payroll data. Where the numbers show unjustified differences, the labour inspectorate (ACT) can notify the employer, and a notified employer must respond with a remediation plan demonstrating — within a set period — that its pay differences rest on objective, gender-neutral criteria. Transparent remuneration policies based on such criteria are an express obligation of the law.

No statute names a scoring system. But an employer asked by the ACT to justify its pay structure job by job is, functionally, being asked for the output of a job evaluation.

Who must comply

The Labour Code's equal-value guarantee binds all employers; Law 60/2018's statistical net covers companies through their mandatory payroll reporting, with the notification mechanism aimed in its first phase at larger employers (the regime rolled in for companies with 250+, then 50+ employees). Works councils and unions can also trigger evaluation requests, and discrimination claims remain available throughout.

Enforcement and recent developments

Portugal reached the EU Pay Transparency Directive's 7 June 2026 deadline in draft stage — late, like most member states. Transposition will be cumulative rather than disruptive: Law 60/2018 already normalized government-published gap data and justify-or-remediate obligations; the Directive adds category-based gap reporting (by workers performing work of equal value), salary transparency in recruitment, and joint pay assessments at the 5% threshold. The analytical core — pay structures resting on skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions — formalizes the "objective criteria" Law 60/2018 already demands but never specified.

How point-factor job evaluation supports compliance

• Notification-proof justification — an ACT notification gives an employer limited time to show its differences are objective. A maintained point-factor evaluation is that demonstration, pre-built: scored job values plus recorded justifications for in-band differences.
• "Objective criteria," made concrete — Law 60/2018's central phrase begs the question the Directive answers: which criteria? Scoring jobs on the four factor families satisfies both regimes with one methodology.
• Category reporting ahead of the wrapper — Portugal's transposition will organize reporting by equal-value categories; employers who derive categories from factor scores now will meet the final text with the hard part finished.

Portugal already publishes the gaps and knocks on doors. Analytical job evaluation is what answers the door with evidence.

The law

Official tools and downloads for Portugal

Government-published job evaluation tools, guides, and templates — each links directly to the official source.

Frequently asked questions

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