Half a million employees will see their pay rise by 3.58% from January as a result of the automatic indexation of Belgian wages, according to calculations by HR specialist SD Worx on the basis of December inflation.
The rise in wages applies to white-collar employees from the so-called Joint Committee 200, which consists of a very diverse group of sectors ranging from call centres and publishers to the graphic industry. All together, this affects the wages of more than 523,000 employees.
In Joint Committee 200, wages are indexed annually on 1 January. After an indexation of over 11% in 2023 and 1.48% in 2024, an indexation of 3.58% will follow in January. "Overall, however, we note that the total indexation over four years – since 2022 – is around 20%," said SD Worx. According to HR specialist Acerta, this is the second-highest wage indexation in the past ten years for the employees concerned.
However, not only the wages of employees from the Join Committee 200 are going up: other sectors with fixed indexation in January are also seeing 3.58% wage increases. These include white-collar workers and employees in international trade, food trade, insurance companies, construction suppliers or real estate agents.
Inflation
As in October and November, inflation in December is around 3.2%, meaning that a family that spent €100 in December 2023 will now have to pay €103.20 for the same products. The European Central Bank targets an inflation rate of around 2%.
Natural gas and electricity in particular became more expensive compared to December last year. But smoking products, olive oil, newspapers or jewellery also rose sharply in price compared to a year ago. In contrast, the prices of laptops, video equipment and all kinds of household appliances dropped significantly compared to a year ago.
