On July 15, the select Ministerial Committee received a report on the pay gap written – following its own request – by a group of experts (national bank, planning office, central economic council – CCE – and national statistics office). This voluminous document gives a sectoral report on the Belgian ‘wage disability.’ But there are different interpretations and the issue is far from being settled. Laurette Onkelinx, socialist deputy Prime Minister, gave a bracket between 0.5 and 2.8 percent earlier this week, underlining the great social support Belgian businesses enjoy, the Federation of Belgian Enterprises (FEB) gave a 16 percent gap. Figures and statistics will be closely analyzed, even though the government remains cautious. (Ref. 130495).
As a reminder, the pay gap is the index comparing pay in Belgium and its neighbors (France, Germany and the Netherlands). It was first calculated in 1996, when the law on corporate competitiveness came into force to combat excessively high labor costs in Belgium (see article No. 130340). The government wants to go even further and take this gap down to 1.8 percent at the end of 2014, and 0 percent in 2018. Forgetting about exemptions, contributions cuts and all sorts of subsidies (since tho
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