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Compulsory pay transparency from 2026 onwards – evaluate your remuneration policy in good time and make adjustments
The number of European regulations being adopted that affect businesses in Belgium is increasing all the time. From 2026 onwards, regulations will enter into force obliging employers to provide a high degree of pay transparency for both job applicants and employees. Given that these new regulations will take effect from 2026 onwards, employers are advised to carry out a thorough analysis of their company's remuneration policy in 2025 and to make adjustments if necessary so that they are compliant with the new, more stringent rules on transparency.
What's this all about?
Regulations that oblige employers to pay equal wages to men and women have already existed for a long time. Despite this, the pay gap still exists and amounts to an average of 13% across the European Union as a whole.
EU lawmakers have therefore decided to impose additional obligations upon employers, which will result in extra work, administration and reporting. The European directive will need to be transposed into Belgian law no later than 7 June 2026.
It is important to stress that pay doesn't solely relate to a person's basic salary, but also to all forms of additional or variable remuneration and benefits in kind.
What criteria are currently regarded as objective as a means of justifying the differences? There are actually four important criteria: skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions. The category of employees refers to groups of employees that are performing equal work or work of equal value and are grouped in accordance with non-discriminatory, objective and gender-neutral criteria.
| Phase of employment | What additional obligations apply? | To which companies? |
|---|---|---|
| Before an employee enters service (application) |
This information must enable the applicant to negotiate their salary in an informed way. | To all employers. |
| During employment: transparency |
| To all employers. |
| During employment: active reporting about the M/F pay gap |
| Companies < 100 employees: voluntary, to be determined by national legislature Companies with 100-149 employees: obliged to report on the pay gap once every three years from 2031 onwards Companies with 150-249 employees: obliged to report on the pay gap once every three years from 2027 onwards +250 employees : annually from 2027 onwards
|
| During employment: overall pay evaluation |
| This only applies to companies that are obliged to draw up a report. |
| Phase of employment | What additional obligations apply? | To which companies? |
| Before an employee enters service (application) |
This information must enable the applicant to negotiate their salary in an informed way. | To all employers. |
What are the risks?
The European Directive provides additional protections for employees in order to safeguard their rights:
- Trade unions must be involved in the entire process.
- Employees and their representatives must have access to the courts in order to enforce compliance with their rights.
- Employees are entitled to full compensation for losses arising from any difference in pay identified.
- If an employee can provide evidence of a difference in pay, the burden of proof will be reversed, which means that the employer must demonstrate that no discrimination is taking place.
It will, however, be a case of waiting to see how Belgian law-makers implement this directive in more detail. It is probable that sanctions will be included in the Belgian Social Penal Code for infringements of these regulations.
What can you do as an employer in 2025 in order to get ready?
2026 will be with us sooner than we expect and effective preparation will be essential in order to avoid negative consequences. Follow these steps:
- Determine the principles on which your remuneration policy is based.
- Make sure you are applying gender-neutral criteria that can be linked to the following elements: skills, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
- Collect data about your current remuneration policy.
- Draw up a list of positions and categories of positions, based on an objective matrix.
- Involve your Works Council or the trade unions in good time from the beginning of process onwards, so that they do not focus solely on individual cases.
- If the analysis identifies any discrepancies, address them as quickly as possible.
- Inform your employees about the wider context in a proactive way.
- Train HR and line managers so that they are aware of your remuneration policy and give them the necessary tools to answer employees' questions.
- Ensure pay transparency within your recruitment policy.
- Document your policy by laying down clear policy guidelines.
In many cases, it is found that the quantitative data that are needed to chart the current remuneration policy and pay gap are not detailed enough to enable a thorough analysis. In collaboration with its digital unit Element 61, Moore offers solutions that make use of analytical software such as Microsoft Power BI or QlikSense to enable the data from all Belgian social secretariats, enriched, if applicable, by data from internal HR systems, to be presented clearly and rapidly in Business Intelligence dashboards.
Link with ESG
Companies getting ready to provide ESG and CSRD reporting will, in all cases, be required to report about the pay gap as part of their social reporting (S1-16 Own workforce). After all, addressing diversity in all of its forms is an essential part of internal sustainability.
Changes to company culture
Surveys conducted amongst Flemish companies have shown that 53% of companies are not providing any proactive communication regarding pay packets or remuneration policy. Rather than providing evidence of pay transparency, what this actually indicates is that pay is a taboo subject. Accurate information about the remuneration policy of a company is crucial in order to create the right expectations – it ensures an honest and balanced remuneration policy without inflating salary demands or giving rise to an unhealthy interest in colleagues' pay packets.
Do you have any questions about these new regulations? If so, our experts can provide more detailed information.
