Don't let your social media specialist
fly the plane.
RoleValue is a free tool for building a transparent job architecture - aligned with the EU pay transparency directive. Built by SparkEXP, available right away. No IT rollout, no budget.
Built by SparkEXP
45Avenue Group
Open source
Local data
When roles are not clearly defined, chaos comes easily.
A barista flies the plane. A mechanic serves the coffee. A social media specialist takes the controls. It is a scene from our spot - but for many companies it is everyday life in a less literal version.
Payscale: employees who believe they are paid below market are 49.7% more likely to leave within 6 months. SHRM estimates the cost of replacing a single employee at 50-200% of their annual salary. In a 200-person company with 10% turnover that is PLN 1.5-6 million a year, if the cause is an unclear pay structure.
Sources: Payscale, "Fair Pay Perception and Pay Transparency" (2021); SHRM, "Retaining Talent"; PARP, "SME Report 2025".
EU Directive 2023/970 reverses the burden of proof: it is the employer who must prove there is no discrimination. Sanctions: fines up to hundreds of thousands of euros, full damages, exclusion from public procurement. Without job architecture, a single complaint can cover an entire category of employees.
Sources: Directive (EU) 2023/970, art. 18, 23, 24; Mercer, "Pay Transparency Foundation" (2024).
Three steps to a transparent job architecture.
Job evaluation methodology translated into an application you run in your browser. No IT rollout, no security team sign-off - your data never leaves your computer.
1
Create job families (Production, Sales, HR), define career levels and development stages. The starting point for everything that follows.
2
Define weighted evaluation criteria (responsibility, impact, complexity) and score every position objectively - independently of whoever holds it.
3
Assign employees to roles and levels. RoleValue generates a dashboard ready to present to your board or an auditor.
Everything you need to know - in one place.
The transposition deadline passed on 7 June 2026. Pre-employment obligations are already active. First mandatory pay gap report: 7 June 2027.
Timeline of obligations
10 May 2023
Directive 2023/970 enters into force
The European Parliament and the Council adopt the pay transparency directive (OJ EU L 132/21). Member states have 3 years to transpose it.
24 December 2025
Poland - first stage in the Labour Code
Art. 18ยณแถแต of the Labour Code: the obligation to inform a candidate about pay before the interview or before establishing the employment relationship. The remaining obligations sit in draft UC127.
7 June 2026 - PASSED
Deadline for transposition into national law
Only 5 EU countries transposed on time: Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania, Malta and Greece. The European Commission is considering infringement procedures against the late ones.
Q4 2026 - Q1 2027
A wave of national implementations
Poland (UC127, 6 months vacatio legis), Germany (Entgelttransparenzgesetz 2.0), France (entry into force 1 January 2028) and the Netherlands (1 January 2027) finalise their acts.
7 June 2027
First mandatory pay gap reporting
Companies with 250+ employees - annual report. Companies with 150-249 employees - every 3 years. It covers the 7 metrics from art. 9 of the directive.
7 June 2031
Extension: companies with 100-149
Companies employing 100-149 people report their pay gap for the first time (3-year cycle). The Commission publishes its first evaluation report (art. 33).
Penalties in key EU countries
| Country | No pay range in the job ad | No pay gap report | Pay discrimination |
|---|---|---|---|
| ๐ต๐ฑ Poland (draft UC127) | PLN 1,000 - 50,000 | PLN 3,000 - 50,000 | up to PLN 50,000 + damages |
| ๐ฎ๐น Italy (in force) | EUR 250 - 1,500 | EUR 1,000 - 5,000 | EUR 5,000 - 10,000 + exclusion from procurement |
| ๐ฉ๐ช Germany (planned 2027) | TBD (draft act) | TBD | up to EUR 500,000 (existing AGG) |
| ๐ซ๐ท France (draft) | EUR 450 / breach | up to 1% of the payroll | up to 1% of the payroll |
| ๐ช๐ธ Spain | draft Real Decreto 2026 | EUR 7,501 - 225,018 (LISOS) | EUR 7,501 - 225,018 |
| ๐ธ๐ฐ Slovakia (in force) | EUR 4,000 - 8,000 | EUR 4,000 - 8,000 | up to EUR 100,000 |
| ๐ฒ๐น Malta (in force) | EUR 2,500 - 5,000 (criminal) | EUR 2,500 - 5,000 (criminal) | EUR 5,000 - 7,000 (criminal) |
| Country | ๐ต๐ฑ Poland (draft UC127) |
|---|---|
| No pay range in the job ad | PLN 1,000 - 50,000 |
| No pay gap report | PLN 3,000 - 50,000 |
| Pay discrimination | up to PLN 50,000 + damages |
| Country | ๐ฎ๐น Italy (in force) |
|---|---|
| No pay range in the job ad | EUR 250 - 1,500 |
| No pay gap report | EUR 1,000 - 5,000 |
| Pay discrimination | EUR 5,000 - 10,000 + exclusion from procurement |
| Country | ๐ฉ๐ช Germany (planned 2027) |
|---|---|
| No pay range in the job ad | TBD (draft act) |
| No pay gap report | TBD |
| Pay discrimination | up to EUR 500,000 (existing AGG) |
| Country | ๐ซ๐ท France (draft) |
|---|---|
| No pay range in the job ad | EUR 450 / breach |
| No pay gap report | up to 1% of the payroll |
| Pay discrimination | up to 1% of the payroll |
| Country | ๐ช๐ธ Spain |
|---|---|
| No pay range in the job ad | draft Real Decreto 2026 |
| No pay gap report | EUR 7,501 - 225,018 (LISOS) |
| Pay discrimination | EUR 7,501 - 225,018 |
| Country | ๐ธ๐ฐ Slovakia (in force) |
|---|---|
| No pay range in the job ad | EUR 4,000 - 8,000 |
| No pay gap report | EUR 4,000 - 8,000 |
| Pay discrimination | up to EUR 100,000 |
| Country | ๐ฒ๐น Malta (in force) |
|---|---|
| No pay range in the job ad | EUR 2,500 - 5,000 (criminal) |
| No pay gap report | EUR 2,500 - 5,000 (criminal) |
| Pay discrimination | EUR 5,000 - 7,000 (criminal) |
Indicative penalties, based on draft transposition acts - full data in the whitepaper. Check the legal status in your country.
Frequently asked questions about the directive
Directive 2023/970 applies to all employers in the EU, but the scope of obligations grows with the size of the organisation. Pay gap reporting is phased in: 250+ employees from 2027, 150+ from 2031, 100+ from 2033. Pre-employment obligations (pay ranges in job ads, the ban on asking about salary history) apply to everyone, regardless of size.
Build RoleValue Enterprise with us.
We are developing the commercial version of RoleValue: HRIS integrations, automated reporting, an AI assistant for job evaluation and real-time teamwork. We are looking for three SMEs to beta test it before the commercial launch in Q2 2027.
1
The SparkEXP team will walk you through configuration, job family definitions, evaluation criteria and your first job evaluation. Market value PLN 25,000 - for you, zero.
2
We will build an integration with your HRIS, payroll system or ATS at half the commercial rate (from PLN 8,000 instead of PLN 16,000).
3
After the commercial launch (Q2 2027) your company gets lifetime access to all Enterprise features - no subscription, no hidden costs.
4
Your feedback goes straight to the SparkEXP product team. The features you request get priority in development.
Free to use. Built professionally.
RoleValue is free because we believe compliance with Directive 2023/970 should not be a privilege of companies that can afford Mercer or Willis Towers Watson.
It is built by SparkEXP - an independent software house from Warsaw, part of the 45Avenue Group (McCann Poland, Weber Shandwick, Made in PR).
The code is open (GitHub), your data stays locally on your disk, and you do not have to register. We monetise through implementation services - not by selling data.
SparkEXP
45Avenue Group
Open source
GDPR compliant
RoleValue turns pay transparency from a legal obligation into an organizational advantage.
- README, sparkexp/app-hr-role-value
Pay transparency is not a risk. It is your strongest recruitment argument.
Compliance is one side of the coin. The other is an advantage in recruitment, retention and trust - stronger than many a benefit.
83% / 77%
of women and men rate a job ad with a stated salary higher than one offering "pay negotiable"
Source: labour market research 2024-2025
+7%
increase in Glassdoor ratings at companies reporting pay parity (a reputational boost - real, but short-lived)
Source: Sharkey, Pontikes, Hsu, Administrative Science Quarterly 2022
-30%
shorter recruitment process thanks to pay ranges in the job ad
Source: HR-tech industry analyses 2024
2x
lower turnover among employees who feel they are paid fairly
Source: HR benchmark reports 2024-2025
Frequently asked questions.
Yes, the base version is 100% free and will stay that way. SparkEXP monetises through implementation services, custom integrations and the Enterprise version. The commercial version with HRIS integrations arrives in Q2 2027 - right now we are looking for 3 beta partners.
Launch RoleValue
For free