Foreign employers planning assignments to Belgium in 2026 face steeper payroll requirements after Wallonia, Brussels-Capital and (soon) Flanders published their new minimum-salary criteria for non-EEA nationals. The figures—used to adjudicate Work Permit B, Single Permit and EU Blue-Card applications—are indexed annually for inflation and wage growth, but this year’s jump is one of the largest in a decade.
Wallonia led the way, raising the highly-qualified salary floor to €53,220 (from €51,613) and the EU Blue-Card threshold to €68,815. Junior ICT transferees must now earn at least €34,408, while executive-level ICT staff need €68,815. Brussels chose to maintain a monthly-salary model, setting €3,703.44 for highly skilled staff and €6,647.20 for executives—figures that already exceed many neighbouring EU capitals on a cost-to-talent basis. Flanders will keep its 2025 amounts until new national wage-norm statistics are released, after which updated thresholds will follow within a month.
![Regional Authorities Hike 2026 Minimum-Salary Thresholds for Belgium Work & Single Permits]()
For assistance navigating these new salary thresholds and streamlining the underlying permit paperwork, global mobility teams can outsource the visa process to specialists such as VisaHQ. Their Belgium desk (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) offers online application tools, document checklists and on-call experts who can coordinate Single Permit, Work Permit B and EU Blue Card filings in all three regions, ensuring compliance under the updated rules.
KPMG warns that failure to meet the new benchmarks can trigger rejection of permit applications and even criminal sanctions for illegal employment. Employers must also budget for higher social-security contributions, as the thresholds are gross amounts. For multi-jurisdictional projects, Belgium may therefore look comparatively less attractive than the Netherlands or Germany, both of which announced smaller increases for 2026.
Mobility impact: Start recruitment discussions earlier and lock in remuneration packages that comfortably exceed the applicable regional bar. If seconding junior talent, consider timing assignments so that contracts are signed before Flanders updates its rates. Companies with existing permit holders are unaffected until renewal, but HR should flag the cost implications in 2026 budgeting cycles.
Wallonia led the way, raising the highly-qualified salary floor to €53,220 (from €51,613) and the EU Blue-Card threshold to €68,815. Junior ICT transferees must now earn at least €34,408, while executive-level ICT staff need €68,815. Brussels chose to maintain a monthly-salary model, setting €3,703.44 for highly skilled staff and €6,647.20 for executives—figures that already exceed many neighbouring EU capitals on a cost-to-talent basis. Flanders will keep its 2025 amounts until new national wage-norm statistics are released, after which updated thresholds will follow within a month.
For assistance navigating these new salary thresholds and streamlining the underlying permit paperwork, global mobility teams can outsource the visa process to specialists such as VisaHQ. Their Belgium desk (https://www.visahq.com/belgium/) offers online application tools, document checklists and on-call experts who can coordinate Single Permit, Work Permit B and EU Blue Card filings in all three regions, ensuring compliance under the updated rules.
KPMG warns that failure to meet the new benchmarks can trigger rejection of permit applications and even criminal sanctions for illegal employment. Employers must also budget for higher social-security contributions, as the thresholds are gross amounts. For multi-jurisdictional projects, Belgium may therefore look comparatively less attractive than the Netherlands or Germany, both of which announced smaller increases for 2026.
Mobility impact: Start recruitment discussions earlier and lock in remuneration packages that comfortably exceed the applicable regional bar. If seconding junior talent, consider timing assignments so that contracts are signed before Flanders updates its rates. Companies with existing permit holders are unaffected until renewal, but HR should flag the cost implications in 2026 budgeting cycles.
