More than 600,000 office workers in Belgium will receive a 4.65% pay increase in January, according to calculations by HR services company Acerta.
As part of automatic indexation, which seeks to keep pay in line with inflation, the pay increase will be applied to workers covered by the collective bargaining agreement Joint Committee 200: all white-collar workers and executives employed by companies in the industrial, commercial, service, or agricultural sectors – comprising approximately 50,000 companies in Belgium.
Additionally, the food, hospitality, domestic staff and the insurance sectors will see a similar increase through their collective bargaining agreements. Civil servants will also see their salaries increase, but not until February.
Beyond automatic indexation, wages have been stagnating in Belgium. HR services provider Randstad recently found that, after indexation, wages are set to grow by just 0.89% on average in 2026.
"Without indexation this year, the rise of fixed base pay is very low. It is the second lowest it has been in 10 years, which shows that the budget of companies for pay is quite under pressure," Paul-Etienne Siegrist, Senior Reward Manager at Randstad, told The Brussels Times in September.
Instead, employers have turned to bonuses and other schemes, such as warrants, to give one-off rewards and retain talent. Randstad's survey found that the use of warrants has nearly doubled in a year, rising from 6% in 2025 to 11% in 2026.
Businesses see bonuses and warrants as a preferable option during periods of economic uncertainty because they don't increase fixed costs.
Economic uncertainty has weighed on business spending this year. Belgium's economy flatlined in the second quarter, and recent figures point to an industrial slowdown, with factories operating below capacity.
However, business confidence appears to be recovering. A report from the National Bank of Belgium last week showed that business confidence rose to its highest level since January in October.
Business confidence improved in manufacturing, business-related services, and construction in October. Only the retail sector declined.
