JC 149.01 indexation January 2027: formula and history

The JC 149.01 indexation in January 2027 falls on 1 January 2027: the minimum hourly wages and the hourly wages actually paid to electricians rise in line with the social index of December 2026 against December 2025. The percentage is only known once Statbel publishes the December index on 23 December 2026. Below you read what that social index is, how you round and how much wages have risen since 2021.

The percentage of the JC 149.01 indexation in January 2027

Until then there is no official percentage. The JC 149.01 page in the minimum wage database received its last edit after the January 2026 index on 19 January 2026. The subcommittee also states the percentages afterwards, in its national agreement. Volta, the sector's fund, does not publish the percentage.

Federal Planning Bureau forecast. In its inflation forecasts of 6 October 2026 the Planning Bureau estimates the smoothed health index at 102.92 points in December 2026. That is an estimate of the index, not a percentage for JC 149.01. 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 149.01?

The rule is in the collective agreement of 25 June 2014 on pay setting, which applies for an indefinite period. The minimum hourly wages and the hourly wages actually paid are linked to the social index. Since 2005 you have adjusted them on 1 January:

1. Take the social index of December of the past year.
2. Divide it by the social index of December a year earlier.
3. Multiply the December hourly wage by the result.

What is the social index? The sector's national agreements define it as the average of 4 months of the health index. Statbel publishes that 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 December to December, that factor makes no difference.

Rounding. All index calculations are made with the third decimal and rounded to the hundredth, half a hundredth going up. You round the new hourly wage to the nearest euro cent.

What rises with it? The minimum hourly wages and the hourly wages actually paid. If you pay above the pay scale, that higher hourly wage rises by the same percentage.

The rise first. If a negotiated rise coincides with the index adjustment, you apply the rise first.

The fund's supplementary allowances do not follow automatically every year. The national agreement 2025-2026 indexed them in one go from 1 January 2026 with the wage indexations of 2024, 2025 and 2026.

JC 149.01 indexation history since 2021

This is how electricians' hourly wages rose on 1 January in recent years, according to the history in the FPS minimum wage database:

In January 2023 hourly wages rose by 11.19%: the index follows the prices of the past year, and those rose sharply in 2022. In January 2026 it was 2.23%. A past percentage predicts nothing: it only depends on the December 2026 index.

What is already fixed for January 2027, and what is not?

What is already fixed:

• The date: 1 January 2027.
• The formula: the social index of December 2026 divided by that of December 2025.
• Who gets the rise: the minimum hourly wages and the hourly wages actually paid.
• The cents index: January 2027 is the first indexation in JC 149.01 since 1 June 2026.

What is not fixed yet:

• The percentage. It follows from the December 2026 index, published on 23 December 2026.
• The new minimum hourly wages per category and seniority.

The cents index in the JC 149.01 indexation of January 2027

January 2027 is the first indexation in JC 149.01 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 December 2026 index figure on 23 December 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. The JC 149.01 page was last edited after the 2026 index on 19 January 2026.

You then also see the new pay scales on our page with the JC 149.01 pay scale. The committee's standing rules, the pay scales and the bonuses are in our guide to joint subcommittee 149.01. 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 149.01 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 electrician, round as the collective agreement requires 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.