The number of people receiving a living wage in Flanders has reached a record high. They now number 57,200, an increase of 5 percent compared to last year and 70 percent compared to 2007. This was reported by Het Laatste Nieuws on Friday.
At 560 million euros, the costs for living wages have never been higher. Het Laatste Nieuws notes that non-European migrants make up an increasing share of people on a living wage. In 2007, they accounted for 19 percent of recipients. By 2024 it will already be 35 percent. Moreover, 98 percent appear to be of working age. “The system has become a hammock,” says economist Ivan Van de Cloot in the newspaper.
Het Laatste Nieuws also lists some explanations for the increase. The biggest jumps were in 2016 and 2022. In 2016 there was the asylum crisis, with an influx of migrants who moved on to a living wage. The jump in 2022 has to do with the war in Ukraine, when thousands of Ukrainians fled to Belgium and were immediately entitled to a living wage. But there is more going on: the outflow has also stopped since 2015, meaning that more people remain in the system for years.