Expert Debunks 4 Myths About Belgium’s New Pay Transparency Rules

By June 7, Belgium must transpose the European Pay Transparency Directive (EU 2023/970) into national law, ushering in sweeping changes to how wages are discussed, disclosed, and negotiated. The new rules require employers to be more transparent about pay with both new hires and existing employees — and while they primarily benefit lower-income workers, they also aim to create a fairer wage structure across the board. Yet according to Het Laatste Nieuws, only 30% of Belgians know what the new rules actually entail. To help clear the confusion, wage expert Bart Van den Bussche of PwC debunks four persistent myths.

The Awareness Gap

According to data from HR service provider SD Worx, nearly three-quarters (74%) of Belgian employers are aware of the incoming regulations. Two-thirds believe their employees are already correctly compensated, and 60% are confident they have everything in place to comply. Among employees, however, awareness sits at just 30% — a significant information gap that the new rules are designed to close. As SD Worx noted in February, “The right to information is the real game changer.”

Myth 1: “You’ll know exactly what you’ll earn during the job interview”

Reality: Companies must disclose a salary range or level before the first interview, but this information does not necessarily have to appear in the job posting. Employers only need to share the scale for the specific function and level being applied for — not every salary band in the organization. The key requirement is that the information is provided before salary negotiations begin. As the VBO (Federation of Belgian Enterprises) clarified in its myth-busting article, this is one of the most common misunderstandings about the directive.

Myth 2: “There will be no room for negotiation”

Reality: Negotiation is still very much on the table. Employers can no longer ask candidates about their previous or current salary, but they remain free to negotiate based on objective criteria such as education level, skills, experience, and performance scores. Employers can even offer more than the disclosed range — as long as there is a clear, justifiable reason grounded in those criteria. “It can no longer be that men systematically get more and women never do,” Van den Bussche told HLN. According to BDO Belgium, the key shift is that all pay differences must now be defensible through objective, gender-neutral criteria.

Myth 3: “You’ll be able to simply request your colleagues’ salaries”

Reality: Not quite. Employees have the right to request information about their own individual pay and the average pay of employees in the same or equivalent category, broken down by gender. What they cannot do is request a specific colleague’s individual salary from the employer. However, employees may ask a colleague directly if that colleague voluntarily wishes to share their salary information — and employers cannot prohibit employees from sharing their own salary data. As Liantis explains, individual salary data remains confidential, but aggregated information per category must be made available.

Myth 4: “All wages will increase”

Reality: Not necessarily. The biggest winners will be candidates currently earning less than they are worth. Since they no longer have to disclose their current low salary, new employers will offer a realistic wage matching the function rather than anchoring to an artificially low baseline. For other candidates, the rules may actually help companies control so-called “salary inflation” by tying rewards more closely to clear, objective criteria. Van den Bussche expects fewer extremes overall. “I expect there will be fewer extremes,” he said. “Wages will ultimately all evolve more toward the middle due to pay transparency.”

What This Means for Employers and Employees

The directive introduces several concrete obligations. Companies with 250 or more employees must publicly report their pay gap annually starting June 7, 2027. Medium-sized companies (150-249 employees) must report every three years from the same date, while smaller companies (100-149 employees) follow from June 7, 2031. Unexplained pay gaps exceeding 5% between men and women must trigger a joint pay evaluation with worker representatives.

Non-compliance carries serious consequences: back pay, compensation for lost opportunities and moral damages, fines based on total payroll, reversal of the burden of proof, and court-ordered implementation of pay structures. Despite 60% of employers believing they are ready, only 18% of Belgian companies have actually conducted pay gap reporting — suggesting significant overconfidence.

The Bottom Line

Belgium’s new wage transparency rules represent a fundamental shift in workplace dynamics. For employees, the right to information is empowering — particularly for those who have historically been underpaid. For employers, the message is clear: start preparing now. The deadline is June 7, and the practical impact will be felt immediately, from how job interviews are conducted to how pay gaps are reported and corrected. As the VBO puts it: “The time is now.”