CEO Puts €10,000 Salary on Billboard to Break Pay Taboo
A 33-year-old Belgian CEO has placed a billboard in Antwerp displaying her gross monthly salary of €10,000, in a bold attempt to break the country’s long-standing taboo around salary discussions. Maura Nachtergaele, CEO and co-founder of software company Payflip, argues that secrecy around pay keeps people financially uninformed and harms both employees and employers.
The billboard, unveiled on June 1 in Antwerp’s Zuidpark, comes just days before the June 7 deadline for Belgium to transpose the EU Pay Transparency Directive into national law — a deadline the country is widely expected to miss, according to Het Laatste Nieuws.
A Deliberate Provocation
Nachtergaele, who founded Payflip at age 26 alongside Filip Van Doninck and Jon Lopez Garcia, said her motivation is not to boast but to spark a necessary societal conversation.
“I’m not doing it to show off. Let that be clear,” she told HLN. “I want to spark a societal debate about wage transparency and show people that you don’t have to be ashamed of what you earn.”
Her striking comparison captured attention: “We still talk about our salary too often like our grandparents talked about sex: awkwardly and in whispers.”
The Cost of Secrecy
Nachtergaele argues that the culture of salary secrecy carries a real societal cost. “That secretive business about salary has a societal cost: it keeps many people financially ignorant,” she said. “A salary is for most people their biggest source of income. So it’s actually important to know a lot about it.”
Her salary of €10,000 gross per month is significantly above the Belgian average of approximately €4,510 and roughly 2.5 times the median of around €4,000. After taxes and social security contributions, her net take-home is approximately €5,100 per month.
Payflip’s Radical Transparency
Payflip, a software company that helps businesses optimize their compensation policies, has practiced full internal salary transparency since its founding in late 2019. The company of approximately 50 employees maintains an Excel spreadsheet with all salary categories, accessible to every employee.
“At Payflip, everyone has known exactly what everyone earns for years,” Nachtergaele said. “We have an Excel file with all salary categories. Everyone knows who is in which category. We make no exceptions to those salary scales and there are no individual performance bonuses.”
Far from causing conflict, she says the policy has been a competitive advantage. “We also notice that it is a trump card to recruit employees. People know very well what they can earn with us and where the limit lies. Full transparency also offers employees mental peace.”
EU Directive and Belgium’s Delay
The timing of the billboard is no coincidence. The EU Pay Transparency Directive (EU 2023/970) requires member states to transpose its provisions into national law by June 7, 2026. Belgium is expected to miss this deadline.
Nachtergaele said she hopes the billboard can shift the conversation away from predictable political squabbling. “The deadline is in principle this coming Sunday. We won’t make it and that’s a shame, but with that billboard in Antwerp I actually want to avoid getting into a predictable political discussion.”
She emphasized that transparency is not a partisan issue. “Transparency in wages is not a political issue. It is a societal necessity.”
Marketing or Mission?
Nachtergaele openly acknowledges the dual nature of the campaign. “It’s marketing, but we also want to make a statement because the discussion about wage transparency is close to our hearts. We’ve been paying our people crystal clear at Payflip for six years and it just works.”
The company plans to extend the campaign, with colleagues expected to share their own salaries on social media in the coming week. Nachtergaele hopes this could trigger a chain reaction among other business leaders.
Facing Backlash
Nachtergaele said her parents initially had reservations about her going public with her salary. “When I let my parents know I was going public with my salary, they had their doubts. ‘You’re 33 and you earn €10,000 a month. What will people say about that, Maura?’”
She remains undeterred. “I don’t let that bother me. There might be some mud slung at me, but I’ll take it.”
What’s Next
With the EU deadline approaching and Belgium expected to fall short, the debate around pay transparency is only intensifying. The directive will eventually require employers to provide information on pay levels broken down by gender, ban pay secrecy clauses, and require salary ranges in job postings. Companies with more than 250 employees will need to report annually from 2027.
Whether Nachtergaele’s billboard will inspire other CEOs to follow suit remains to be seen. But for now, a 33-year-old entrepreneur from Deinze has succeeded in doing what few have dared: putting a number on the taboo.