In the good news department, an 11% wage increase will occur for more than 500,000 Belgians who are remunerated according to the joint commission for employees (CP 200). Their remuneration will be adapted to changes in the cost of living in January, as is the case every year. But indexing will be historically high this time. It will rise to 11.08%, which is a record. In comparison, as of January 1, 2022, wage indexation for private sector employees was 3.58%. Other sectors have an indexation system which provides for an annual adjustment of wages to inflation at the beginning of the year. Workers in the food industry (10.96%), road transport and third-party logistics (10.96%), catering (10.96%), food trade (11.08%) , insurance (11.1905%) and building management and real estate agents (11.08%) for example can also expect their salaries to be adjusted to inflation on 1 January. Inflation was very pronounced in 2022. The central index was exceeded five times in the space of one year.
Another change favorable to workers: the adaptation of tax scales. She goes like this increase salaries by at least 600 euros per year. The very high inflation has led to an automatic indexation of wages by sector, but also a higher indexation of tax rates. More of the salary then ends up in a lower tax bracket, resulting in a higher net salary. According to calculations by HR service provider SD Worx, due to the adaptation of the tax scales and calculations of withholding tax, the net monthly salaries of Belgians, both in the private and in the public sector, will increase by at least 50 euros from 1 January 2023, and therefore 600 euros net per year. In 2021, there was only talk of an increase of 60 euros per year and around 240 euros in 2022.
Students will be able to work more. The maximum number of hours of work allowed for studentsby paying reduced social security contributions and without losing family allowances, will pass from 475 to 600 per year on January 1. The measure will last at least until 2024. The employers’ federations had welcomed the measure taken as part of the federal government’s budget agreement. Some sectors (Horeca, events, etc.) are sometimes sorely lacking in manpower. Trade union youth organizations oppose this measure which, for them, does not fight against student precariousness but “puts jobistes in competition with workers and widens social inequalities”.
Another extension, that of flexi-jobs, which will be extended to a series of sectors from 1 January: sport, the performing arts, cinema and certain support functions in the care sector. These are added to the catering trade, the retail trade (bakery, butcher, supermarket, etc.) or hairdressing salons which could already use them. The events sector, faced with a recurring lack of manpower, has been asking for this extension for a long time. The flexi-job allows a worker to exercise a complementary job under advantageous conditions. The employer only pays a 25% employer’s contribution (no ordinary social security contributions or payroll tax), while the worker does not pay workers’ contributions or payroll tax on the flexi-wage. The mechanism is aimed at pensioners and people who already work at least 4/5ths for another employer.
We will also note the implementation of a concrete framework concerning the right to disconnectthe elongation of birth leave for fathers and co-parents, or even a new legal framework for platform workers. These three measures are part many to come in the corporate world.
More clarity and new calculations for pensions
Former workers now retired are also affected by a series of changes to come.
transparency and clarity from supplementary pension system (second pension pillar) will be reinforced from 1 January 2023. The rules for all pension institutions will be harmonized so that all affiliated persons, i.e. 4.13 million, have the same information, understandable, clear and correct for all . Certain administrative procedures will also be simplified by strengthening the role of Sigedis and mypension.be. Uniform information on supplementary pensions will also be implemented from 1 January 2024 for the annual pension sheet. The measure concerns employees and the self-employed, of whom 76% and 57% respectively build up a supplementary pension.
Also from January 1, a new method of calculation will facilitate access to the minimum pension for assisting spouses of the self-employed. It was not until 2003 that assisting spouses of the self-employed began to build up pension rights. Some of them can therefore hardly prove the 30 years of career necessary to have access to the minimum pension for self-employed persons. Assisting spouses will therefore benefit from a new method of calculating the “two-thirds of full career” required for this pension. The “career” in question will only be calculated between 2003 and the taking of the pension, for assisting spouses who have contributed since 2003 or 2005, without access to the minimum pension, born between January 1, 1956 and May 31, 1968) . The status of assisting spouse is granted to any partner of a self-employed worker who provides him with effective assistance, who does not have more than 3,000 euros per year in income from work or replacement.
The income ceilings are also raised for parents with survivor’s pension. Widowed mothers and widowed fathers will be able to accumulate more income with their survivor’s pension. The maximum amount of income authorized for the accumulation of a survivor’s pension with income from a job or a mandate will be increased according to the number of dependent children, indicated the Federal Minister for Pensions Karine Lalieux (PS ). The increase will amount to 5,000 euros per dependent child, on an annual basis. The income limit for an employee or civil servant will therefore be 30,152 euros per year with one dependent child, 35,177 euros/year with two children, etc. The survivor’s pension is granted to people who are at least 48.5 years old. This age limit will be raised gradually to reach 50 in 2025. Below this minimum age, people affected by the loss of their spouse are entitled to a transition allowance.
Finally last change in the matter, a minimum pension will be introduced for childcare. The amount of the pension for carers of children who will retire from 1 January 2023 will be higher. Caregivers have only had a status and their own social protection since 1 April 2003. They therefore acquired no right to a pension for the years of work preceding this date and could not claim a minimum pension. before 2033 (because a minimum of 30 years of career is required). The new law aims to compensate for this situation. From now on, the years worked by childminders after 2003 will be multiplied by a coefficient and will weigh more in the calculation in order to facilitate access to the guaranteed minimum pension. The provision affects some 6,000 people, mostly women.