JC 145 indexation January 2027: formula and history

The JC 145 indexation in January 2027 falls on 1 January 2027: the minimum hourly wages and the actual hourly wages in horticulture rise in line with the four-month average of the health index of November 2026 against November 2025. The percentage can already be calculated once Statbel publishes the November index on 27 November 2026. Below you read how the collective agreement calculates and rounds, when there is an extra step in July and how much wages have risen since 2023.

The percentage of the JC 145 indexation in January 2027

Until then there is no official percentage. Last year the percentage was already in the pay agreement the joint committee concluded on 18 December 2025, and the JC 145 page in the minimum wage database was already edited on 9 December 2025.

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 145. 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 145?

The rule is in the collective agreement of 18 April 2024 on linking wages to the smoothed health index. The pay agreement of 18 December 2025 refers to it again. Every year on 1 January:

1. Take the four-month average of the health index of November of the past year.
2. Divide it by the same average of November a year earlier.
3. The quotient has 4 decimals. If the fifth decimal is 5 or more, you round up.

You calculate the new hourly wage to three decimals and round it to the cent: up if the third decimal is 5 or more, otherwise down.

What rises with it? The minimum hourly wages and the wages actually paid, for blue-collar and white-collar staff. The pay scales of casual workers follow the same link too, under their own collective agreement (no. 198501/CO/145). If you pay above the pay scale, that higher wage rises by the same percentage. For a white-collar employee with partly performance-related pay, you only index the fixed part.

An extra step in July. If the four-month average rises by at least 3% between November and May, the sector also indexes on 1 July. You deduct that July percentage from the January percentage the following January. In 2026 there was no July step.

The rise first. If a negotiated rise coincides with the indexation, you apply the rise first and then the indexation.

JC 145 indexation history since 2023

This is how horticulture wages rose on 1 January in recent years, according to the history in the FPS minimum wage database. For 2021 and 2022 the JC 145 history has no entry.

In January 2023 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 2.19%. 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 minimum hourly wages and the actual wages of blue-collar staff, white-collar staff and casual workers.
• There is no deduction of a July step, because there was none in July 2026.
• The cents index: January 2027 is the first indexation in JC 145 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 crop and category. The committee sets them in its pay agreement.

The cents index in the JC 145 indexation of January 2027

January 2027 is the first indexation in JC 145 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.

Where do you find the percentage for January 2027?

You find the percentage and the new amounts in these places:

1. Statbel publishes the November 2026 index figure on 27 November 2026. With it, the formula of the collective agreement can be filled in completely.
2. 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.
3. The joint committee states the percentage in its December pay agreement, as in the collective agreement of 18 December 2025. You find it in the FPS Employment collective agreement database.

You then also see the new pay scales on our page with the JC 145 pay scale. The committee's standing rules, the pay scales and the bonuses are in our guide to joint committee 145. 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 145 in your payroll administration, together with Acerta, with the percentage that follows from the collective agreement. We apply the quotient to the hourly wage of each employee, your casual workers included, 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.