Salary is the part of the interview candidates most often get wrong in both directions. Some name a number in the first five minutes. Others avoid the subject until the contract arrives and then discover the gap is too wide to close.
In Belgium there is a further complication: the number on the offer is not the number that determines what you earn. Indexation, sector scales and extralegal benefits all move it.
Here is how to handle the conversation without losing either the money or the goodwill.
When should you raise the subject?
Ideally, you do not. Let the employer go first.
Whoever names a number first sets the frame, and early in a process you have the least information about scope, seniority and budget. The exception is the recruiter screening call, where salary is usually asked upfront precisely to avoid wasting everyone's time. Answer it there, honestly and in a range.
What you should not do is open the subject yourself in a technical or panel interview. Nobody in that room owns the budget.
Always answer in gross monthly
In Belgium, quote gross monthly salary unless you are asked otherwise. Freelance and contracting conversations are the exception and run on a daily rate.
The gap between gross and net here is large, and it varies with your family situation, so a net figure means very little to an employer and creates a mismatch later. If the vocabulary is not second nature, the gross versus net salary definition sets it out.
State the range, then state what you are including in it: base only, or base plus meal vouchers, car, insurance and bonus.
Know the floor before you negotiate
Most white-collar roles in Belgium sit under a joint committee that sets binding minimum salary scales.
Joint Committee 200 is the largest of them, covering more than half a million employees across consulting, engineering, IT and related sectors. Its scales set the legal floor for a given function classification and level of experience. You can be paid above the scale, never below it.
Knowing which scale applies to you tells you where the floor is, which is useful context even when your target sits well above it. See the salary scale and joint committee 200 definitions.
What automatic indexation means for your negotiation
Belgium applies automatic wage indexation, which is unusual and worth understanding before you negotiate.
For Joint Committee 200, salaries are adjusted every year on 1 January, based on the evolution of the flattened health index. The adjustment is mandatory, and it applies to actual salaries paid above the minimum, not only to the minimum scales themselves (source: Securex Lex4you).
Two practical consequences. First, indexation is not a raise and no employer should present it as one, because it happens automatically. Second, a negotiated increase compounds on top of it, which is an argument for settling the base correctly now rather than planning to fix it next year.
How to answer "what are your salary expectations?"
Give a range, not a point. Make the bottom of the range a figure you would genuinely accept, because that is the number you will be offered.
A workable formulation: "Based on the scope as I understand it, I am looking at somewhere between X and Y gross monthly, package included. I would rather understand the full package before fixing a number."
That answer does three things. It commits to a range, it signals you are thinking in total package, and it leaves room to move once the scope is clearer.
Negotiate the package, not just the number
This is where most of the available value sits in Belgium, and where employers have far more flexibility than on base salary.
- Meal vouchers and eco vouchers
- Company car, mobility budget or a public transport subscription
- Hospitalisation insurance and group insurance
- A collective bonus scheme such as a CBA 90 bonus
- Homeworking days, training budget, extra leave
A base salary is often locked to an internal grid. The package rarely is. If the answer on base is a firm no, move the conversation here rather than ending it.
When not to negotiate
Three situations where pushing costs more than it returns.
When you have already accepted verbally and then come back for more, which damages trust before day one. When the increase you are chasing is small enough that it would take a year to notice. And when you have no alternative and the offer is already at the top of the stated band.
Negotiating is normal and expected. Reopening a closed agreement is not.
In short
Let them go first. Answer in gross monthly, in a range, with a floor you would accept.
Know your sector scale so you know where the floor is, and remember that indexation is automatic, so it is not a substitute for getting the base right.
Then negotiate the package. It is where the flexibility is, and it is the part most candidates forget to ask about. If you would rather have someone handle the package conversation on your behalf, that is part of what our search and selection consultants do before you ever sit down with the client.
