The Republic of Croatia has achieved a lot in the area of salary regulation and pay equality by adopting international universal and regional legal acts and harmonizing national legislation with EU law. However, numerous issues remain open, not only in our own legal system but also at the EU level. Directives are an excellent tool for harmonizing the EU legal system. However, directives represent the first step that necessarily requires further, not only amending national legislation but also implementation, which is often the most challenging but also the most important task. Without implementation, directives are dead letter on paper. Considering that the Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on strengthening the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value through transparency of pay and enforcement mechanisms represents the most concrete and detailed effort to achieve pay equality and imposes the greatest burden not only on employers but also on states, we can say that the directives that preceded it paved the way - starting with Directive 2006/54/EC on the implementation of the principle of equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation (recast) and the Recommendation on strengthening the principle of equal pay for men and women through transparency, as well as Directive 2008/94/EC on the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer and the Directive on appropriate minimum wages in the European Union. Although the Proposal is not yet in force, it is expected to be part of legal everyday life in the future. All the mentioned Directives, together with the Recommendation, ensure a safe legal framework for the implementation of equal opportunities and market access, improving working conditions and the lives of workers, as well as gender equality. Of course, the existing legal framework is not ideal, but I am confident that what the future holds will be an upgrade that, looking at the last decades of legal regulation, is on an upward trajectory. The basic legislation regulating the issue of wages in the Republic of Croatia defines what constitutes a wage, what it means for two people of different genders to perform equal work or work of equal value, as well as the method of payment of wages or salary compensation, documents related to it, and regulates the right to increased wages and prohibition of setoff in the Croatian legal system. This legislation is the Labor Law. Furthermore, one of the basic mechanisms for protecting workers and ensuring fair wages is the Minimum Wage Act, the expected effects of which, as we have seen, differ from the actual ones. However, in conditions of low coverage by collective agreements with a decreasing trend, the legal regulation of the minimum wage is necessary. Unequal access to employment opportunities, gender-based segregation, unfair pension system, women working in lower-paid industries and jobs, working in lower hierarchical positions, burden of household and family responsibilities on women, and the undervaluation of women's work are factors that cause a pervasive socio-economic problem - inequality between men and women in the labor market that affects their earnings and standard of living. Considering the causes of such inequality, a multidimensional approach is necessary with various measures and activities aimed at reducing or eliminating the inequality.