Your salary package in Belgium explained: more than gross alone

Two vacancies, one with a higher gross salary: easy choice, right? Not in Belgium. Our pay landscape is full of fringe benefits that often make more net difference than a hundred euros gross. Compare packages correctly and you negotiate better and choose smarter. This guide lines up the building blocks and gives you a method to compare apples with apples.

The fixed core

Your gross monthly salary is the base, topped up with double holiday pay (roughly 92 percent of a monthly salary) and, in most sectors, an end-of-year premium, the so-called thirteenth month. Shift work adds premiums of 10 to 25 percent depending on the system, treated favourably for tax. Always ask what the quoted amount covers exactly: gross per month, with or without premiums, and which joint committee you fall under. That committee sets your minimum scales, notice rules and often your end-of-year premium too.

The fringe building blocks

Meal vouchers (up to 8 euros per day worked) and eco vouchers (up to 250 euros per year) have become near-standard. More important long term is the group insurance: an employer contribution of a few percent of your gross salary quietly builds a supplementary pension worth tens of thousands of euros over a career. On top: hospitalisation insurance (increasingly also outpatient costs and dental), a phone plan, a laptop, a training budget and sometimes a cafeteria plan in which you pick your own benefits. Each looks like a detail; together they are worth hundreds of euros net per month.

The company car, considered separately

A company car with fuel or charging card is usually the heaviest benefit financially. If you drive it privately a lot and give up your own car, you quickly save several hundred euros a month: no depreciation, no insurance, no maintenance, no fuel. A taxable benefit in kind stands against that, but the net balance remains clearly positive. No car on offer? Look at the mobility budget or a bike lease: fiscally attractive and increasingly available in technical roles.

How to compare two offers correctly

Put both packages side by side on a yearly basis and convert everything to net value: salary plus premiums plus the private value of the car plus insurances, vouchers and pension build-up. Count not only what you get today but also what grows: scale increases, indexation and the group insurance. When in doubt, ask the employer for a pay simulation; asking that question professionally makes you look informed, not difficult. Apply through AltusConnect and we simply make that comparison together, with a concrete gross range shown on every vacancy.