What is a “category of workers,” and how should we define it for reporting?

To report meaningfully on pay gaps, employers need to group employees into “categories of workers” - clusters of roles that can fairly be compared.

The Directive doesn’t prescribe exactly how to define these categories. For now, organisations are expected to make their own choices, as long as they’re objective, consistent, and explainable.
 

A “category of workers” is central to how pay gaps are measured and analysed. It ensures that pay comparisons are made between genuinely comparable roles.

Typical bases for categories include:

• Job level (e.g. entry-level, professional, management)
• Function or job family (e.g. HR, finance, operations)
• Contract type (e.g. permanent, temporary, part-time)

Best practice:

• Start with your existing job architecture. If you already use job grades, function clusters, or salary frameworks, these can provide a solid foundation.
• Make sure categories are objective and gender-neutral.
• Apply definitions consistently across the organisation.
• Ensure groupings are easy to explain to employees, auditors, and regulators.

The risks:

• Categories that are too broad may hide inequalities.
• Categories that are too narrow may lead to unreliable data or miss minimum reporting thresholds.

Defining categories carefully not only strengthens compliance — it also helps you highlight where fairness already exists, and where improvements are needed.
 

You’ll need to review your internal structures and decide how to define categories that make sense for your workforce. Involve HR, legal, and employee representatives early, so your definitions are credible and defensible.

This is also an opportunity to improve internal consistency: categories that are well-designed make pay decisions easier to explain and build employee trust.
 

“Category of workers” may sound technical, but it’s a critical building block of pay transparency. Get it right, and your reporting goes beyond compliance to become a tool for credibility and culture change.