What is a salary scale?
A salary scale is the grid of minimum salaries that a joint committee sets for its sector. Functions are classified into categories, and each category has a minimum that the employer cannot go below.
It sets a floor and nothing more. Above the minimum, what you are paid is a matter of negotiation, which is why two people in the same category at the same employer can earn very different amounts and both be perfectly legal.
How does a salary scale work in practice?
Through classification. In the committee covering most Belgian white-collar employees, functions are grouped into categories, and there are two scales: one that applies to an employee entering the company and one that applies after a year of service in the same company. The published grids are available from the sector fund for CP 200.
Your position depends on which category your function falls into, and that is where most disputes actually sit. A job title is marketing; a classification is a legal position with a number attached to it.
How is a salary scale different from a market rate?
A scale is the minimum an employer may legally pay. A market rate is what an employer has to pay to actually hire you. In a tight technology or engineering market the two can be far apart, and quoting the scale in a salary conversation tells you almost nothing about what is achievable.
The scale still matters in three situations: when an offer sits close to it, when a classification looks wrong, and when indexation lifts the floor faster than your own pay has moved.
What should you check about your own scale position?
Your classification first, because everything else follows from it. Then whether the scale applied is the entry one or the one that kicks in after a year of service, since the switch is easy to miss and nobody will remind you.
If you are being placed on client projects while employed by a consultancy, the classification that applies is the one at your employer, not at the client, which is worth confirming before you accept. See gross vs net salary for what the figure becomes in practice, and compare the roles currently open.
