Employer of Record in Belgium: 18 Providers Compared (2026)

Employing someone in Belgium: key facts

Belgian employment rules are national, with one minimum wage and one social security body (ONSS), but most office and IT staff also fall under the auxiliary joint committee for employees (PC/JC 200), which adds its own scales and bonuses.

Minimum wage

One national rate applies to every worker aged 18 and over, indexed several times a year.

Source: cnt-nar.be, checked 2026-10-05.

• Reduced percentages (67%-90%) apply to workers under 18 and to students under 21.
• Sector scales can be higher: the PC/JC 200 scale starts at EUR 2,242.80/month (class A, 0 years’ experience, after the January 2026 indexation of +2.21%) (employment.belgium.be, checked 2026-10-05).

Employer contributions

The employer pays ONSS contributions on all remuneration for private-sector employees (bedienden), with no ceiling.

Sources, all checked 2026-10-05: ONSS rate, special contributions, structural reduction, high-pay exemption, holiday pay.

• Above about EUR 3,896/month of gross pay the structural reduction is zero, so the effective employer rate is the full 25% plus 0.03%.
• The mandatory work-accident insurance premium is market-rated and sits outside the statutory rate (gtai.de, checked 2026-10-05).

Working hours and overtime

• Standard: 8 hours a day and 38 hours a week on average over a reference period; the effective weekly maximum is generally 40. Rest: 11 consecutive hours per 24; Sunday work is prohibited except under derogations.
• Overtime premium: 50% on weekdays and Saturday, 100% for Sunday or public-holiday hours, on the ordinary hourly wage.
• Voluntary overtime, retroactive from 2026-04-01: up to 360 hours a year, of which 240 hours carry no overtime premium and are exempt from withholding tax and social security. This comes from a law-firm summary of the draft act; we did not open the final text (leglobal.law, checked 2026-10-05).
• Source: employment.belgium.be, checked 2026-10-05.

Annual leave and public holidays

• 20 legal holiday days a year in a five-day week (24 in a six-day week), based on days worked in the previous calendar year; sectors may add days (employment.belgium.be, checked 2026-10-05).
• Employees get “simple” holiday pay (normal wage on leave days) and double holiday pay of 92% of gross monthly remuneration, paid once a year, usually in May-June (Securex, checked 2026-10-05).
• 10 public holidays (Royal Decree of 18 April 1974): 1 Jan, Easter Monday, 1 May, Ascension, Whit Monday, 21 Jul, 15 Aug (Assumption), 1 Nov, 11 Nov, 25 Dec (employment.belgium.be, checked 2026-10-05). We did not verify the substitute-day rules.

Probation

• No probation period: the probationary period and clause were abolished for contracts starting on or after 2014-01-01 (Unified Status Act of 26 December 2013), as confirmed by BDO.
• For open-ended contracts starting from 2026-08-01, a uniform one-week notice applies to either party during the first six months.
• Source: bdo.be, checked 2026-10-05.

Notice and severance

Notice is the same for workers and employees on open-ended contracts starting on or after 2014-01-01. The scale below applies to contracts starting from 2026-08-01.

• Contracts that started before 2026-08-01 keep the old scale: 1 week for 0 to under 3 months, then 3, 4 and 5 weeks in months 3-6, and longer steps after that.
• We do not reproduce the upper end of the new scale: our extracts of the FPS page were inconsistent on it, and the page states a 52-week cap from 17 years of seniority.
• There is no separate statutory severance pay. If notice is not served, the employer pays compensation in lieu equal to the wage for the unserved period (current wage plus acquired benefits, variable pay averaged over the previous 12 months), normally as one lump sum.
• Sources: notice periods and dismissal, checked 2026-10-05.

13th salary and bonuses

• Not statutory; set by sector collective agreement. Under PC/JC 200 an end-of-year bonus of one monthly wage is due in December (or when the company accounts are filed) if the employee has an employee contract at payment and at least 6 months’ seniority; it is pro rata for part-year service and can be reduced for absences beyond leave, holidays, injury and 60 days of illness.
• PC/JC 200 also pays an annual bonus of EUR 250 gross in June, index-linked since 2017; it is not due where equivalent company-level benefits exist.
• Source: employment.belgium.be, checked 2026-10-05.

Mandatory benefits

• Work-accident insurance with an approved private insurer from the first working day (Law of 10 April 1971, art. 49); occupational diseases are covered by the public fund through the ONSS contribution (gtai.de, checked 2026-10-05).
• Guaranteed salary paid by the employer for the first 30 calendar days of incapacity; the relapse period was extended to 8 weeks from 2026-01-01 (Securex, checked 2026-10-05).
• Employer contribution to commuting costs by sector agreement (PC/JC 200: public transport, private transport and bicycle allowances); double holiday pay and the sector end-of-year bonus (see above).

Work permits

• EU/EEA nationals need no permit.
• Non-EEA nationals staying and working more than 90 days need a single permit (combined work and residence). The employer applies to the region of the main place of work: Flanders, Brussels-Capital or Wallonia.
• Whether an EOR can sponsor the permit was not established in our research.

Source: KPMG, checked 2026-10-05. Flanders thresholds may have been updated after the KPMG alert of January 2026.

Currency and payroll

• Euro (EUR); 1 EUR = 1.1225 USD (ECB reference rate, 2026-10-02).
• Employees (bedienden) are paid at least once a month; manual workers at least twice a month, at intervals of no more than 16 days. The pay date is set by collective agreement or contract; failing that, no later than the 4th working day after the period worked (Act of 12 April 1965) (employment.belgium.be, checked 2026-10-05).

Is Employer of Record legal in Belgium?

Restricted. Belgium prohibits in principle the hiring out of workers: a worker lent by his employer to a user who makes him work within the user’s company. The base rule is the Act of 24 July 1987, art. 31 (employment.belgium.be, checked 2026-10-05). Several rules shape what an EOR can do:

• Narrow exceptions. Authorisation from the Labour Inspectorate (needs the unanimous agreement of the trade-union delegation) or prior notification, for collaboration within the same economic or financial entity and temporary specialised tasks; plus licensed temporary-work agencies.
• Instructions to a provider’s workers. Allowed only under a written agreement that lists them and only if they do not undermine the employer’s authority; safety and well-being instructions are always allowed.
• Regional licence. Temporary-work agencies need prior authorisation from the region (Flanders, Brussels, Wallonia or the German-speaking Community); conditions are regional, not federal (emploi.belgique.be, checked 2026-10-05).

Flanders and EOR. According to Altius (checked 2026-10-05), guidance on the Flemish government website dated 2025-09-11, an instruction for the Flemish Social Inspectorate rather than a regulation, says:

• only entities holding a valid temporary-work-agency licence may provide EOR services in Flanders;
• the activity is restricted to the legal grounds for agency work (replacement, workload increase, exceptional work, in-flow of employees);
• the financial guarantee to the Security Fund is EUR 25,000 on application plus EUR 50,000 on recognition, EUR 75,000 in total;
• specific requirements also apply to the user, meaning the EOR’s client.

According to Baker McKenzie (2025-11-04, checked 2026-10-05), clients must check that the provider holds the licence. Brussels and Wallonia had issued no explicit guidance; application there was expected but uncertain, and whether an indefinite-duration EOR model fits agency-work limits is an open point. We did not locate the original Flemish web statement on vlaanderen.be.

Vendor statement. Parakar said on 2026-02-18 that it holds Temporary Work Agency Agreements for Flanders and Brussels, and that “open-ended contracts are not yet available (a collective agreement is currently being drafted by the ministry)” (parakar.eu, checked 2026-10-05). This is the vendor’s own claim; we checked no register entry for it.

Sanctions. Breach of the hiring-out prohibition is a level 3 offence under the Social Penal Code: a criminal fine of EUR 100-1,000 (plus additional decimes) or an administrative fine of EUR 50-500 (plus decimes); imprisonment was removed. Civilly, the contract is void with retroactive effect, and both lender and user remain liable for ONSS contributions and severance indemnities (Lexgo, checked 2026-10-05). This is a law-firm summary; we did not check the Social Penal Code text.

Risks for you as the client:

• The user is presumed to be bound to the worker by an open-ended employment contract, with joint liability for remuneration, allowances, benefits and social security contributions (employment.belgium.be, checked 2026-10-05).
• Both user and lender can face prosecution or administrative fines, and the worker is entitled to the same pay as permanent workers in equivalent roles (same source).
• In Flanders, unlicensed EORs and their clients face employment claims, joint liability for wages and contributions, administrative fines and criminal penalties; clients are expected to check the licence (Baker McKenzie, checked 2026-10-05).

See also co-employment and permanent establishment.

Who actually employs your hire in Belgium

Vendors rarely say whose entity employs a Belgian hire, so we checked the KBO/BCE register (Belgium’s Crossroads Bank for Enterprises) for each, including the “Employer, National Social Security Office” mark. KBO does not show regional interim licences: the “Authorisations” block is empty on every record we found. We therefore checked the regional lists of recognised interim agencies separately.

Seven of these 18 don’t say whose entity employs a Belgian hire, and for Deel, Oyster, Multiplier, Rippling, Skuad, Boundless and Justworks the KBO match rests on name, address or directors, not on a statement by the vendor. G-P and Boundless write about licences on their own pages, but neither appears in the lists we checked; that is not proof that no licence exists, because the entity may differ or a list may lag. Before signing, ask: “Which Belgian entity will employ my hire, and under which regional interim-agency licence number?”

How to choose an EOR in Belgium

Is the licence your first filter? Then start with Safeguard Global (listed in Flanders and Brussels) and Atlas (listed in Brussels). Both appear in public regional lists by name and KBO number. For anyone else, ask for the licence number in writing; the Wallonia list we used is an archive copy, so a Wallonia licence could be missing from our check.

Where does the hire work? Licences are regional, and the Flemish guidance is the only explicit EOR position we found. In Flanders only Safeguard is listed; in Brussels both are; for Wallonia we have no current list.

Price or completeness? Only Deel ($599), Remote ($699), G-P (from $599) and Skuad ($299, promotional) show a price on their Belgium pages; Safeguard Global publishes none.

Is the role permanent or a replacement? The Flemish guidance ties EOR activity to the legal grounds for agency work, and Parakar says open-ended contracts through its licence are not yet available. Ask any provider how it contracts a permanent hire in Belgium.

Does the hire need a visa? Non-EEA hires need a single permit applied for by the employer in the region of the main workplace. We could not establish whether an EOR can file it, so get the answer in writing before the offer goes out.

What it costs to employ someone in Belgium through an EOR

The figures below assume a large-payroll EOR entity (no first-hire or small-employer reductions), a private-sector employee (bediende) under PC/JC 200, full-time, on an open-ended contract in an IT or office role. The 13th-month bonus and double holiday pay are shown as separate components, because Belgian pay is customarily 13.92 times the monthly salary.

The USD figures use the ECB rate of 1 EUR = 1.1225 USD (2026-10-02). For the lower salary, the quarterly wage of EUR 11,136 sits just below the EUR 11,687.74 threshold, so a small structural reduction may apply; we could not confirm how it is computed and show no estimate. Not included: the work-accident insurance premium (market-rated), the EUR 250 PC/JC 200 annual bonus, sector fund contributions, commuting reimbursements, meal vouchers, guaranteed-salary costs and the EOR fee (Securex, socialsecurity.be, checked 2026-10-05).

Indexation. PC/JC 200 scales are indexed automatically each January (+2.21% in 2026). The January 2027 indexation is forecast at +3.57% (Partena, July 2026), a forecast and not a legal change (Partena, checked 2026-10-05).

The EOR’s own fee. Published prices run from $199 to $699 a month per employee, all in USD per month. Only four vendors show a price on a Belgium page (see the table above); the rest are global list prices, quote-based or unpublished.

Hidden costs, where published:

• Playroll: no onboarding or offboarding fee, and a fully refundable security deposit equal to one month’s salary (global FAQ).
• Rivermate: no onboarding or offboarding costs (pricing page). RemoFirst: no setup, onboarding or termination fees.
• Multiplier: an implementation fee “as applicable”, amount not stated. Deel’s Belgium page lists a telework allowance of EUR 160.99 and an internet allowance of EUR 20 a month.
• No vendor publishes a minimum term or termination fee for Belgium specifically. A blank means unpublished, not zero.

When you don’t need an EOR

• A genuinely independent contractor. If the person sets their own hours and tools and serves other clients, an employment relationship is not needed. See how to pay contractors in Belgium and our hiring guide. Mind contractor misclassification.
• Your own Belgian entity. You become the employer yourself, with ONSS contributions, the sector agreement (PC/JC 200 for most office staff) and the double holiday pay and end-of-year bonus described above. It avoids the hiring-out question.
• An interim agency. For a temporary need that fits the legal grounds for agency work (replacement, workload increase, exceptional work, in-flow of employees), a recognised interim agency is the route the 1987 Act itself provides.
• A PEO co-employs alongside an entity you already have, so it does not help without a Belgian entity. See EOR vs PEO and the PEO glossary entry.

What changed in 2026

• 2026-01-01: GMMI indexed by 2% to EUR 2,154.11/month; PC/JC 200 wage scales indexed by +2.21%.
• 2026-01-01: Employer contributions not due on base pay above EUR 86,700 a quarter (EUR 88,434 from 2026-07-01); introduced by the programme law of 18 July 2025.
• 2026-01-01: The guaranteed-salary relapse period is extended to 8 weeks (per Securex).
• 2026-01-01: Single-permit thresholds updated: Wallonia EUR 53,220 for highly qualified workers (from EUR 51,613); Brussels unchanged; Flanders kept its 2025 figures.
• 2026-02-18: Parakar announced itself as the first licensed EOR in Belgium, with temporary-work-agency agreements in Flanders and Brussels; open-ended contracts not yet available. This is a vendor claim we did not check against a register.
• 2026-04-01: Last step of the 2021 social agreement: GMMI raised by EUR 35 to EUR 2,189.81/month.
• 2026-04-01: Voluntary overtime reform, retroactive: annual cap raised from 100 to 360 hours, 240 of them without premium and exempt from tax and social security (law-firm summary of a draft act).
• 2026-06-01: “Penny index” (centenindex): automatic indexation is limited to 2% on the part of reference wages above EUR 4,000/month, in two periods (from 2026-06-01 and from 2028-01-01), with a new employer ONSS special contribution equal to half of the saving. It applies at a sector’s next indexation; for PC/JC 200, January 2027.
• 2026-07-01: GMMI indexed by 2% to EUR 2,233.61/month; structural-reduction thresholds adapted.
• 2026-08-01: For open-ended contracts starting from this date, a uniform one-week notice period applies to both parties during the first six months.
• 2027-01-01: Forecast, not a legal change: PC/JC 200 indexation of about +3.57%, the first under the penny-index limit.

Numbers vendors haven’t updated

The official GMMI is EUR 2,154.11 from 2026-01-01, EUR 2,189.81 from 2026-04-01 and EUR 2,233.61 from 2026-07-01 (cnt-nar.be, checked 2026-10-05). Against that:

• Deel gives EUR 2,070.48 as the national minimum and a “Deel EOR Minimum Wage” of EUR 2,380.64 under JC 200; the PC/JC 200 scale we found starts at EUR 2,242.80. It also estimates employer cost at 28.38% of salary, where the ONSS rate we use is 25% plus 0.03% in special contributions.
• Remote shows two different minimums on one page, EUR 2,189.89 and EUR 2,029.88.
• Rippling cites EUR 2,070.48 “as of May 2024”; Rivermate and Remote People cite EUR 2,154.11, superseded twice since. Playroll’s EUR 2,233.61 matches the official table.
• Rivermate puts the high-pay cap at EUR 85,000 a quarter; it is EUR 88,434 from 2026-07-01.
• Skuad says probation is not allowed unless the worker is a student or temporary worker; the probationary period was abolished for contracts starting from 2014-01-01.
• RemoFirst presents a 13th and 14th month as mandatory for every worker; the 13th month is set by sector agreement, while double holiday pay is statutory.
• Oyster puts holiday pay at about 90% of monthly pay; Securex gives 92%.

How we built this page

Data was collected and checked on 2026-10-05. Each vendor’s Belgian entity was looked up in the KBO/BCE register, and licences were checked separately in the regional lists of recognised interim agencies: Flanders (list of 2026-08-04), Brussels (all 1,167 entries) and Wallonia, where the official list was unreachable and we used an archive copy dated 2025-04-04 that may lag. Where no registry match exists, we relied on the vendor’s own statement or recorded the entity as not disclosed. Several vendor pages (Oyster, Multiplier, Skuad, RemoFirst, Rivermate) were read from web.archive.org copies, so their prices may have changed since. Providers are ordered with confirmed own entities first, and nobody pays for placement.