Inflation rose from 9.94% in August to 11.27% in September. We have to go back to 1975 to find such a high level of inflation. Who says inflation in Belgium, also says wage indexation. Good news for employees, maybe a little more complicated to manage for some bosses. But not everyone will be augmented in the same way, or at the same time.
This is the direct consequence of inflation: 500,000 employees of joint committee 200, the largest in the country, will see their salaries increase from 1 January. This annual indexation, which also concerns other sectors, such as the hotel and catering industry and road transport, will exceed 10%.
“In the private sector, what is important to understand is that wage indexation is provided for differently according to the different joint committees. Some index annually, others monthly and there are still other formulas. And obviously, the more inflation increases, the greater the indexation will be”, explains Matthieu Dewèvre, adviser to the study service of the union of the middle classes (UCM).
In October, wages in construction, wood, trade or food will receive a boost, namely a quarterly indexation of around 2%.
“It’s like that if we hired an additional person”
It is impossible to detail the 160 joint commissions in Belgium, but for each company these repeated indexations often represent the equivalent of several commitments. “It’s like that if we hired an additional person except that you don’t have the beneficial effects of an additional commitment. You only have the bad side of things, that is to say the cost and that it’s problematic. I remind you that our SMEs have been weakened by the covid”underlines Pierre-Frédéric Nyst, president of the union of the middle classes (UCM).
Fearing a negative impact for the economy, the UCM is calling for a tax exemption for these indexes, in other words a net increase for workers without charges for companies.
