The JC 140.03 indexation in January 2027 falls on 1 January 2027: the minimum hourly wages and the allowances of blue-collar workers in road haulage and logistics for third parties rise in line with the smoothed health index of November 2026 against November 2025. Anyone earning more than the minimum gets the same amount added, not a percentage. The percentage can already be calculated once Statbel publishes the November index on 27 November 2026.
The percentage of the JC 140.03 indexation in January 2027
Until then there is no official percentage. Because the sector works with November, the percentage is known early: the JC 140.03 page in the minimum wage database with the January 2026 index was already edited on 9 December 2025. After that, the subcommittee concludes an implementing agreement with the new amounts every year, such as the collective agreement of 18 December 2025 (no. 196981/CO/140.03) for January 2026.
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 140.03. 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 140.03?
The mechanism is in the collective agreement of 19 October 2017 on the indexation mechanism and the linking of wages and allowances to the index. It applies for an indefinite period, to the blue-collar workers of joint subcommittee 140.03. Every year on 1 January:
- Take the smoothed index of November of the past year.
- Divide it by the smoothed index of November a year earlier.
- Truncate the quotient after 4 digits after the decimal point, without rounding. That is the coefficient.
- Multiply the December amounts by the coefficient. The collective agreement sets its own rounding for this: the fifth decimal is dropped, the fourth becomes 0 or 5, or goes to the next thousandth up.
What rises with it? The minimum hourly wages and a series of allowances: the ARAB allowance, the subsistence allowances, the seniority supplement, the night allowance, the supplementary sickness benefit and the allowance for damage, loss or theft of personal belongings. The new amounts are in that year's implementing agreement.
A higher wage gets an amount, not a percentage. The wages you actually pay rise on 1 January by the same amount as the minimum wage of their category. A driver earning above the pay scale therefore gets the rise in euros of the minimum added, not the percentage on his own wage. The FPS database puts it this way: the difference between the minimum wage and the actual wage is maintained.
A negative index does not lower wages. At the next positive indexation, you apply the rise to the amounts the negative indexation would have produced.
The rise first. If a negotiated pay rise coincides with the indexation, in this subcommittee you apply the rise first and then the indexation. That is the reverse of many other committees.
Your white-collar staff in transport and logistics usually fall under JC 226, with a different formula. Their January index is on our page about the JC 226 indexation.
JC 140.03 indexation history since 2021
This is how the minimum wages in JC 140.03 rose on 1 January in recent years, according to the history in the FPS minimum wage database:
| Indexation on | Percentage |
|---|---|
| 1 January 2026 | 2.18% |
| 1 January 2025 | 3.57% |
| 1 January 2024 | 1.83% |
| 1 January 2023 | 10.96% |
| 1 January 2022 | 3.21% |
| 1 January 2021 | 1% |
In January 2023 minimum wages rose by 10.96%: the index follows the prices of the past year, and those rose sharply in 2022. In January 2026 it was 2.18%. 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: smoothed index of November 2026 divided by that of November 2025, truncated to four decimals.
- Who gets the rise: the minimum hourly wages and the allowances with the coefficient, higher wages by the same amount as their minimum.
- The cents index: January 2027 is the first indexation in JC 140.03 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 amounts of the wages and allowances. The subcommittee sets them in the implementing agreement for 1 January 2027.
The cents index in the JC 140.03 indexation of January 2027
January 2027 is the first indexation in JC 140.03 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: a higher wage in January 2026
Suppose the minimum hourly wage of a category was € 16.0000 at the end of 2025. With the January 2026 coefficient, 2.18%, that became 16 x 1.0218 = 16.3488. The fourth decimal is 8, so the collective agreement rounds to the next thousandth up: € 16.3490. That is € 0.3490 an hour extra. A driver in that category earning € 17.5000 got the same € 0.3490 added: € 17.8490 an hour, and not 17.50 x 1.0218. In January 2027 it works the same way with the new coefficient. The real amounts per category are in the implementing agreement and on our JC 140.03 pay scale page.
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. For January 2026 the page was already edited on 9 December 2025.
- The joint subcommittee sets the new amounts in an implementing agreement, which you find in the FPS Employment collective agreement database.
You then also see the new pay scales on our page with the JC 140.03 pay scale. The committee's standing rules, the pay scales and the bonuses are in our guide to joint subcommittee 140.03. 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 140.03 in your payroll administration, together with Acerta, with the percentage that follows from the collective agreement. We apply the coefficient to the minimum wages and the allowances, give higher wages the same amount as their minimum 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.