Now that the inflation rate has been definitively determined: calculate here how much your wage will increase from January

In our country, wages automatically follow the length of life: if prices rise, your wages rise with them. This automatic indexation – Belgium and Luxembourg are the only countries that apply this automatic indexation – weakens the effect of inflation, i.e. rising prices.

Your purchasing power is therefore safeguarded. At least largely, because this indexation is not based on a “normal” list of consumer prices, but on the health index. This does not include products such as alcoholic beverages, tobacco and motor fuels. “And for the calculation of wages it concerns the smoothed version: the four-monthly average of that health index,” says Gerben Vermeulen, legal advisor at HR company Liantis.

Which wages will increase in January?

All together it concerns the salary of almost a million people. The largest part are the 500,000 employees who fall under joint committee 200. In addition, there are approximately 140,000 employees in the catering industry (joint committee 302), almost 100,000 in the food industry and trade (PC 118 and 119), people from the transport sector (almost 100,000) and employees in logistics (PC 226). ), that’s about 55,000.

How big is the wage increase in January?

“The exact figure has been determined now that we have received the latest index figures from the Federal Public Service Economy,” says Gerben Vermeulen, legal advisor at HR company Liantis. “For the 500,000 employees who fall under joint committee 200, this amounts to 3.58 percent.”

For those who work in the “food trade”, there is also an additional 3.58 percent. In the catering sector it is 3.55 percent, in the transport sector it is 3.56 percent, and in agriculture and horticulture it is also 3.56 percent. Those who work in the food sector also receive an additional 3.56 percent.

Why those small differences? “Of course, inflation is the same for everyone, but each joint committee uses its own calculation method, which explains the minimal differences,” says Vermeulen. (Read more below the module)

Will I see that increase in full net on my payslip?

“No,” says Vermeulen. “It is your gross salary that is indexed, so before deduction of social security contributions and taxes. Roughly speaking, you can say that you will see 40 to 45 percent of that increase net on your pay slip. So from 3.58 percent you will be left with approximately 1.54 percent net.”

Do I get anything if I am not in a sector that indexes in January?

In the other sectors, indexation takes place more gradually. For example, the wages of workers in the construction sector (joint committee 124) are adjusted every quarter. Those of healthcare workers (PC330) and employees in the chemical sector (PC207) are indexed based on a different mechanism. This also applies to the salaries of civil servants and the benefits for pensioners, among others. “They only increase when the central index is exceeded,” says Vermeulen. “That is a fixed threshold: if that threshold is exceeded due to the increase in prices, an additional 2 percent will be added. If, after a while, that central index is exceeded again, another 2 percent is added.”

Which of the two systems is more economical?

“With the pivot index you stay up to date with current events much faster,” says Vermeulen. “The war in Ukraine has caused inflation to increase enormously. Anyone who worked in joint committee 200 had to wait a year, but then their wages were immediately indexed by about 11 percent. That was the highest increase in fifty years. The wage in the non-profit sector, which is linked to the central index, had already been indexed several times in smaller steps.”

Can my boss say that the company does not participate in indexation?

“No,” says Vermeulen. “A collective labor agreement is a higher source of law, which you must respect as a company. Even if you start a new catering business in December, for example, you will also have to increase the wages of your newly hired staff by 3.54 percent in January. A company cannot use its poor financial situation to avoid having to index wages. Then it has to reorganize, but you cannot get rid of that index.”