The JC 118 indexation in January 2027 falls on 1 January 2027: the actual hourly wages and the minimum hourly wages of blue-collar workers in the food industry rise in line with the four-month average of the health index of November 2026 against November 2025. So the percentage can already be calculated once Statbel publishes the November index on 27 November 2026. Below you read how the collective agreement calculates, which bonuses rise with it and how much wages have risen in recent years.
The percentage of the JC 118 indexation in January 2027
Until then there is no official percentage. The JC 118 page in the minimum wage database received its last edit after the January 2026 index on 3 February 2026. We found no food industry sector fund that announces the percentage itself.
Federal Planning Bureau forecast. In its inflation forecasts of 6 October 2026 the Planning Bureau estimates the smoothed health index at 102.35 points in November 2026. That is an estimate of the index, not a percentage for JC 118. The Planning Bureau does not calculate a sector percentage, and neither do we: the percentage only follows from Statbel's final figures. The next forecasts are published on 3 November 2026.
How does the indexation work in JC 118?
The rule is in the collective agreement of 20 July 2011 on linking pay to the index figure, which applies for an indefinite period. Every year on 1 January you adjust wages:
- Take the four-month average of the health index of November of the past year.
- Divide it by the same average of November a year earlier.
- The result minus 1, times 100, is the percentage. You round the indexed amounts to 2 decimals.
Statbel publishes that four-month average every month as the smoothed health index. According to the Federal Planning Bureau, that is the moving average of four months, times 0.98. For the change from November to November, that factor makes no difference.
What rises with it? The actual hourly wages, the sector minimum hourly wages, the weekend bonus in bakeries and pastry shops and the attendance bonus in poultry slaughterhouses. If you pay above the pay scale, you also index that higher hourly wage.
One rule for all subsectors. JC 118 has dozens of subsectors, each with its own pay agreement, from breweries to chocolate factories. The pay agreements of 22 January 2026 all refer to the same 2011 collective agreement for indexation. The date and the formula are therefore the same everywhere; only the pay scale amounts differ.
Index first. If you have to apply a negotiated pay rise and the indexation at the same moment, you calculate the indexation first and then the rise.
White-collar staff of the same company. Your white-collar staff usually fall under JC 220, with the same formula. Their January index is on our page about the JC 220 indexation in January 2027.
JC 118 indexation history since 2022
This is how JC 118 wages rose on 1 January in recent years, according to the history in the FPS minimum wage database:
| Indexation on | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 1 January 2026 | 2.19% |
| 1 January 2025 | 3.57% |
| 1 January 2024 | 1.83% |
| 1 January 2023 | 10.96% (the database states this for the base wages of flexi-job wages) |
| 1 January 2022 | 3.22% |
For January 2023 the JC 118 database only states the indexation of the base wages of flexi-job wages. For January 2021 the JC 118 history has no entry. In January 2026 wages rose by 2.19%. A past percentage predicts nothing: it only depends on prices up to and including November 2026.
What is already fixed for January 2027, and what is not?
What is already fixed:
- The date: 1 January 2027.
- The formula: the four-month average of the health index of November 2026 divided by that of November 2025.
- Who gets the rise: the actual hourly wages, the minimum hourly wages and the two bonuses in the collective agreement, in all subsectors.
- The cents index: January 2027 is the first indexation in JC 118 since 1 June 2026.
What is not fixed yet:
- The percentage. It follows from the November 2026 index, published on 27 November 2026.
- The new minimum hourly wages per subsector. They follow from the percentage and then appear in the minimum wage database.
The cents index in the JC 118 indexation of January 2027
January 2027 is the first indexation in JC 118 since the cents index started on 1 June 2026. For an hourly wage, you first work out the full-time monthly wage. For a full-time reference wage above € 4,000 gross a month, the first 2% of indexation only counts on € 4,000. Anyone earning € 4,000 or less gets the full index.
- If the percentage is 2% or more, someone with a reference wage of € 4,500 gets € 80 (4,000 x 2%) on that first 2% instead of € 90. The part of the index above 2% applies to the full wage again.
- If the percentage is below 2%, the whole January index only applies to € 4,000, and the moderation continues until the indexations together reach 2%.
Meanwhile you pay a special wage moderation contribution to the NSSO. How to calculate it, with a full example, is in our piece on the cents index.
Worked example: how the January 2026 index worked
A blue-collar worker earned € 17.50 an hour at the end of 2025. On 1 January 2026 his hourly wage rose by 2.19%: 17.50 x 1.0219 = 17.88325, rounded to two decimals € 17.88 an hour. In January 2027 you calculate the same way with the new percentage.
Where do you find the percentage for January 2027?
You find the percentage and the new amounts in these places:
- Statbel publishes the November 2026 index figure on 27 November 2026. With it, the formula of the collective agreement can be filled in completely.
- FPS Employment puts the percentage and the new amounts in the minimum wage database. The JC 118 page was last edited after the 2026 index on 3 February 2026.
You then also see the new pay scales on our page with the JC 118 pay scale. The committee's standing rules, the pay scales and the bonuses are in our guide to joint committee 118. What a pay rise yields net for your employee is in our guide gross to net. How the 2026 index turned out per sector is in our news on wage indexation in 2026.
What Business Centrum does for you
Business Centrum applies the January 2027 indexation in JC 118 in your payroll administration, together with Acerta, with the percentage that follows from the collective agreement. We apply the percentage to the hourly wage of each blue-collar worker, to the bonuses the collective agreement includes and to the pay scales of your subsector, and calculate the cents index per employee. All committees that index in January, with their formula, are in our overview of the January 2027 indexation.