A surprising conversation was overheard in a bar in the Châtelain neighborhood, the haunt of many French people in Brussels. "These Belgians are incredible, with their unemployment benefits not limited in time and their wages indexed: How do they do it?" Is Belgium a social paradise? It's not always a paradise for labor organizing, in any case: The country was the European champion for strikes between 2011 and 2020, with 97 days per year per 1,000 workers – compared with 93 in France, 18 in Germany and one in Switzerland – according to a study published in January by the Hans-Böckler Foundation.
Nonetheless, the image is maintained by anecdotes: "I know a guy who has just celebrated 20 years of unemployment in Charleroi," said a local resident. And by decisions made by companies: The ING bank will soon be offering a few hundred older employees the chance to stay at home and do nothing, while keeping their salaries, thus avoiding the need to undertake downsizing measures. And by statements from politicians: Prime Minister Alexander De Croo explained, on the occasion of the parliamentary debates on the 2024 budget (an agreement was reached on October 9), that the automatic indexing of salaries to inflation has made it possible to maintain the prosperity of citizens, who already have a median salary (€3,507 gross, according to the official Statbel organization) among the highest in the world and have seen their incomes increase by 20% in four years.
These salaries could still rise by almost 8% in 2023. "It's better than our German and French neighbors; the country is doing well," De Croo. The quality of the healthcare system and the offer of early retirement are other features that often wow foreign residents.
On the other hand, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study published in April on labor taxation in 2022 was less rosy. Belgian salaries are taxed at 53% for a single person (47% in France, 47.8% in Germany) and at 45.5% for an employed couple with children (40.7% in France, 29.4% for the OECD average).
There's another nuance to the story. The federal government remains generous, but this is costing it dearly. The issue of a one-year state bond in September was a huge success (630,000 subscribers, for €22 billion in the space of a few days), but for the first time, it pushed public debt over the €500 billion mark. That's almost 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2022. Furthermore, the government has just cut some €750 million from the healthcare budget, a sector already in crisis, in an attempt to limit the slippage in the public deficit (3.9% of GDP forecast by the European Commission for 2023).
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