This guide covers pay transparency requirements for employers operating in or hiring from Belgium under the EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970/EU) and existing national legislation. The EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970/EU) requires all 27 member states to transpose its requirements into national law by June 7, 2026. The Directive mandates that employers disclose salary ranges in job postings, prohibit salary history inquiries, and report pay gap data for larger organisations. See the full EU Directive guide for the complete framework.
Current status in Belgium
Who does this apply to?
- Employers with operations in Belgium or posting roles accessible to Belgium-based candidates
- Employee threshold for Directive obligations: All employers
Job posting requirements
- Salary range: Salary range required in all postings from June 2026
- Salary history ban: Prohibited under Directive
- Pay gap reporting: Employers with 50+ employees must publish annual social reports including pay data
Belgian pay reporting framework
Belgium has an existing gender pay gap reporting framework requiring employers with 50 or more employees to include pay analysis in annual social reports. The EU Directive adds job posting salary range requirements. Belgian employers and HR teams should plan for June 2026 implementation while ensuring existing social reporting remains current.
Employer checklist for Belgium
- ✓ Include salary range in all job postings for Belgium-applicable roles
- ✓ Remove salary history inquiries from applications and interviews
- ✓ Understand your pay gap reporting obligations under the Directive
- ✓ Brief recruiters on the requirements for roles in Belgium
How RoleComply helps
RoleComply checks every posting for Belgium compliance — whether you're operating there directly or hiring remote workers based in Belgium. As the Directive's transposition deadline approaches, RoleComply's scanning rules update automatically to reflect each country's enacted legislation, so your team doesn't need to track individual national laws.
What the EU Directive means for Belgium employers
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (2023/970/EU) sets binding minimum standards across all 27 member states. For employers in Belgium, it builds on existing national law — Loi sur l'égalité — and introduces new obligations that will apply once Belgium transposes the Directive by 7 June 2026.
The core requirements are: mandatory salary range in every job posting, a ban on salary history questions, the right for employees to request pay gap comparisons, and mandatory pay gap reporting for employers with 100 or more employees. The European Commission pay transparency guidance and the Belgian Federal Employment Service are the authoritative sources for Belgium-specific implementation details.
Practical steps for Belgium employers
Audit every job posting now. Review all roles advertised in Belgium across your careers page, LinkedIn, local job boards, and any recruitment agencies posting on your behalf. Every posting needs a salary range once the Directive is transposed — starting the audit now means you are ahead of the deadline rather than reacting to it.
Build a pay banding framework. The Directive requires ranges to reflect objective, gender-neutral criteria. This means a structured compensation system: roles mapped to levels, benchmarked against market data, with documented factors for variation within each band. Without this foundation, you cannot post defensible ranges.
Prepare for pay gap reporting. Employers with 100 or more employees in Belgium will need to calculate and report their gender pay gap. Unlike equal pay analysis (which compares pay for identical work), pay gap reporting looks at average pay across your entire workforce. Start tracking pay, role, and gender data now.
Train HR and recruiters. Front-line teams need to know that salary history questions are banned, that vague phrases like "competitive salary" are prohibited, and that every posting needs a real range — not a placeholder. Run a short briefing and update your posting templates before the deadline.
Penalties
The Directive requires Belgium to establish "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" penalties. Employers found to have pay discrimination face reversed burden of proof: once a complaint is raised, the employer must demonstrate their pay practices are lawful. See our full EU Directive guide for the complete framework, or read our pay transparency 101 guide for the broader context.
