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Official information and services: belgium.be Belgian Federal Public Services

Wages employees

My pension as an employee is based on my wages. But which wages are used for the pension calculation?

We calculate your pension on the basis of your total wages as an employee. Your total wages can consist of:

The total wages per career year are restricted to a limit. The principle 'higher wages equal a higher pension' therefore applies until you reach this wage limit.

Your total wages per career year are raised until they reach the guaranteed minimum wage if your career counts at least 15 years of more than 104 full-time equivalent days as an employee.

Because the total wages for the year in which you retire are often not yet known, we use the total wages of the next-to-last year for the pension calculation.

Find out more about the wage limit.

Find out more about the guaranteed minimum wage.

Find out more about the calculation of the pension amount for the year in which you retire.

Real wages

For the periods in which you effectively worked as an employee, we calculate your pension on the basis of your real wages. This is the gross income (wages, premiums, single holiday allowance):

  1. you received within the scope of your employment contract;
    and
  2. from which NSSO contributions were deducted.

In certain situations, the real wages per career year are substituted by the fictitious salary. In this way, we ensure that your pension amount does not decrease because of a new employment with lower wages after an assimilated period.

Find out more about the substitution of the real wages by the fictitious salary.

Lump sums

For periods in your career for which the wages are unknown, we calculate your pension on the basis of a lump sum. This is the case, amongst others, for:

  • career years as an employee before 1955;
  • career years as an office worker before 1958;
  • assimilated periods before 1968;
  • years of employment as a seasonal or frontier worker.

The amount of the lump sum is decreed by law.

Find out more about the different lump sums.

Fictitious salaries

For assimilated periods during which you did not work, we calculate your pension as an employee on the basis of fictitious revenues from labour: the fictitious salary.

Generally, the fictitious salary for an assimilated period is based on the total wages for the preceding worked period. The fictitious salary is therefore based on the wages of the career year that immediately precedes the assimilated period.

An example: if you are unemployed in 2018, the fictitious salary is based on the total wages of your career year 2017.

Find out more about the calculation of the fictitious salary.

Decrease of the pension proceeds in the case of a new employment after an assimilated period

In certain situations, the real wages per career year are substituted by the fictitious salary. In this way, we ensure that your pension amount does not decrease because of a new employment with lower wages after an assimilated period.

This is the case if you:

  • receive a disability benefit during at least 185 days;
  • are at least 30 % permanently unfit for work due to an occupational disease or industrial accident;
  • work during a period of sickness or invalidity, with the permission of the medical advisor;
  • perform homework during a period of unemployment, with the permission of the NEO, due to which you do not receive unemployment benefits;
  • receive a limited compensation from the Redundancy Payments Fund and you do not exercise another professional activity at the same time.

From the moment you turn 50 and have a career as an employee of at least 20 years with at least 104 full-time equivalent days a year, your real wages are also substituted by the higher fictitious salary in the following situations:

  • when after a dismissal, you again are full-time or part-time employed with a lower daily wage and your performances are at least equal to your former employment (of application for periods from 01.01.2004).
  • when after a period of involuntary unemployment or sickness/invalidity, you again are full-time or part-time employed (of application for periods from 01.07.2000).
  • when you have switched from a full-time to a part-time employment within the framework of an approved restructuring plan or an industrial plan for the reorganization of labour (of application for periods from 01.07.2000).
  • when you have the professional status of part-time employee with retained rights (of application for periods from 01.07.2000).