Pay transparency rules in Belgium

As of 30 June 2026 there is no Belgian federal law putting the Pay Transparency Directive into effect for private-sector employers. Belgium missed the 7 June 2026 EU deadline and has asked the European Commission not to open infringement proceedings for about six months. In practice this means the Directive's new duties (pay ranges in hiring, the salary-history ban, employee pay-information rights, gender pay-gap reporting) are not yet enforceable against private employers in Belgium. What still applies in full is Belgium's existing equal-pay and anti-discrimination law, including the long-standing duty to pay women and men equally for equal work or work of equal value. The sensible position now is to get ready, not to wait: keep pay decisions defensible and based on objective, gender-neutral criteria, and avoid irreversible changes until the federal text is clear. The Belgian employers' federation explicitly advises monitoring developments and not taking irreversible steps.

Under the Directive (which Belgium must eventually adopt): employers must give candidates information about the starting pay or pay range before the interview, normally in the job advert or before it; employers must not ask candidates about their current or past pay (the salary-history ban); job titles and selection criteria must be gender-neutral. Once in post, workers gain the right to request information on their own pay level and on the average pay levels, broken down by sex, for groups doing the same work or work of equal value, and employers must tell staff annually that this right exists. Pay structures must let workers judge whether pay is set on objective, gender-neutral criteria. None of these are yet enforceable in Belgium because no federal transposing law is in force. Treat them as the near-certain shape of the Belgian rules and start aligning recruitment and pay documentation now.

The Directive's reporting timetable is set at EU level and runs from these dates regardless of when Belgium legislates: employers with 250 or more workers report their gender pay gap annually, first report by 7 June 2027; employers with 150 to 249 workers report every three years, first report by 7 June 2027; employers with 100 to 149 workers report every three years, first report by 7 June 2031; employers with fewer than 100 workers have no EU reporting duty (a member state may choose to go further). If a report shows a gender pay gap of at least 5% in any group of workers doing equal work or work of equal value that the employer cannot justify on objective, gender-neutral grounds and does not fix within six months, the employer must carry out a joint pay assessment with workers' representatives. Because Belgium has not transposed yet, the exact Belgian reporting mechanics, definitions and any local thresholds are not yet fixed, but the EU first-report deadlines still loom.

The Directive obliges each member state to lay down penalties for breaches that are effective, proportionate and dissuasive, and to consider fines. It also strengthens enforcement: a shift of the burden of proof to the employer in equal-pay disputes, the right of workers to compensation including full recovery of back pay and related bonuses, and a role for equality bodies and workers' representatives. The specific Belgian penalty amounts, enforcement body and procedure will only be known once Belgium passes its federal law, which has not happened as of 30 June 2026. For now, existing Belgian anti-discrimination and equal-pay sanctions continue to apply to pay discrimination claims.

Where Teamed acts as Employer of Record, Teamed is the legal employer of the worker in Belgium and is the entity on which Belgian statutory employment duties fall. When Belgium transposes the Directive, duties such as providing pay ranges in recruitment, observing the salary-history ban, answering employee pay-information requests, and (where size thresholds are met) gender pay-gap reporting and any joint pay assessment will sit with the legal employer. In an EOR arrangement the practical inputs (the role, the pay offered, the selection criteria, the job grouping) come from you as the client, so close coordination matters: the EOR can only set defensible, gender-neutral pay and produce accurate reporting if the client supplies consistent role and pay information. Headcount tests are also worth watching, since reporting thresholds are based on the legal employer's workforce. Until the federal law is in force, these are preparation points rather than live duties.