On the afternoon of this Wednesday, January 8, 2025, BEL20 CEOs will have already earned the equivalent of the median annual salary of Belgian workers.
Knowing that the median annual salary of Belgian workers in 2023 is 3,739.07 euros gross per month (salary estimated based on the latest available statistics), BEL20 CEOs earn the median annual salary of Belgian workers in 4.8 days of work
. Based on the 2025 calendar, it is therefore this January 8, in the afternoon, that the BEL20 CEOs will have earned the equivalent of one year’s salary of the median Belgian worker. A BEL20 CEO therefore earns 54 times the median salary.
The gap is even more glaring with the minimum wage. In 2023, the minimum wage (guaranteed average monthly minimum income) is €1,954.99. A BEL20 CEO earns nearly 120 times the minimum wage. He earned as much as a minimum wage worker after less than 2.2 days of work.
Between 2014 and 2023, the median compensation of CEOs in the BEL20 increased by 74.6% while the median salary only increased by 25.6% and the minimum salary by 30.2% (including inflation figures). This shows very clearly that not all salaries are in the same boat. While salary increases for most workers are blocked by the wage freeze law (1996 Competitiveness Act), the salaries of BEL20 CEOs have soared in recent years.
Bart de Wever’s supernote, which serves as the basis for the Arizona negotiations, contains measures that attack workers’ gross wages and will have the effect of further widening the gap between the remuneration of BEL20 CEOs and the wages of workers. The note provides in particular to delay and limit the indexation of salaries and to allow certain companies or sectors not to apply the salary increases provided for in interprofessional or sectoral agreements. This could allow certain companies to circumvent sectoral or inter-professional minimums to apply lower wages, which would create a race to the bottom for workers’ rights.
“To reduce inequalities and increase the share of wealth that goes to workers, we want, on the contrary, to remove the wage blocking law to obtain increases in gross wages and we want to maintain and extend wage indexation,” indicates Clarisse Van Tichelen, permanent in the CNE studies department.
The 2023 figures are the most recent figures available for BEL20 CEO salaries.
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