Basic salaries of Belgian employees increased on average by 7% between April 2021 and April 2022, according to HR service provider Hudson. The increase is significantly higher than the 2% increase from the previous year.
Salary increases in Belgium are at the highest in two decades and it is largely thanks to wage indexations.
"Despite the limited margin for surcharge due to the wage standard, many companies made budget available for a salary increase," said Bert De Greve of Hudson. "At least 91% of the white-collar workers received a surcharge on top of the automatic indexation and could usually count on higher amounts."
However, even without wage indexation, salaries rose by 1.5% last year. In addition, employees, executives and managers received higher bonuses. For executives, the average salary rose by €3,000, a 10% increase. Manager and senior manager bonuses on average were between €7,021-21,371.
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Hudson observed that the wages for those under 25 have risen too. The average salary for young people with a master's degree was € 2,628 euros in 2018, but had risen to €2,900 in 2022.
For starters with a bachelor's degree, the figures grew from €2,281 euros to €2,600 in 2022, a 14% increase. For younger employers, engineers working in production and research had the highest salaries. Moreover, young employees in the IT sector are often given a company car at the start of their career.
