Following a dip in 2023, more people were granted a salary raise last year. Remarkably, women received a raise as often as men.
Slightly more than one in ten Belgian workers (13%) received an individual pay rise in 2024. This is a structural increase in gross pay, different from the pay rise due to Belgium's automatic wage indexation system. On average, people received a raise that equated to 3.26% of their gross monthly pay, figures from HR service provider Attentia showed.
"The average individual pay rise in recent years ranged from 2.72% of gross monthly pay in 2021 to 4.04% in 2023," Hannelore Blondia, Business Lead of HR Consulting at Attentia, said.
Raises were granted more often than in previous years. The figure dropped in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2023, significantly fewer bonuses were granted due to the exceptionally high automatic indexation.
"Companies therefore had less room to grant additional raises due to rising wage costs," said Blondia. At this point, employers focused more on lower wages, with the idea that high wages were rewarded by indexation.
Break in equal pay
Women received a raise as often as men in 2024 for the first time. Year after year, men received raises more often than women. The only exception was 2020 when more women than men were granted a raise (5.17% of men compared to 5.68% of women).
But last year, the difference between the two proved minimal: 12.92% of men received a raise, compared to 12.83% of women.
"The fact that the gap is narrowing in terms of raises is probably due to European regulations on wage transparency and equal pay for equal work," said Anouk Van Gils, Total Reward Manager at Attentia. "That directive has yet to be transposed into national legislation, but we see that awareness among employers is increasing anyway."
When it comes to the amount received, women did receive slightly higher raises than men. But even that difference narrowed for the first time in 2024: men received an average of 3.17% raise, while for women the figure was 3.45%.
Meanwhile, the difference between full-time and part-time workers does persist. Around 13% of full-time workers received an individual pay rise last year compared to 9% of part-time workers.
