Belgian holiday pay 2026: double vakantiegeld, leaving pay and blue-collar holiday pay
Estimates only, not financial advice. What you type stays on your device. Checked against sources on 16 Oct 2026.Belgian white-collar employees receive double holiday pay of 92% of the monthly salary for a full year worked, less a 13.07% contribution on 85/92 of it; on leaving, 15.34% of the year's gross pay. Blue-collar workers receive 15.38% of their wages counted at 108%.
2026 · Rates and rules read from Sociale Zekerheid (RSZ/ONSS), Administratieve instructies 2026/3: Vakantiegeld on 16 Oct 2026; they may have changed since.
Choose your case: double holiday pay as a white-collar employee, holiday pay on leaving, or a blue-collar worker.
Type the monthly salary and months worked last year, or the gross pay this year and last year, or last year's wages.
On leaving, type the days of this year's holiday already taken and whether the double pay was already paid.
Read the gross holiday pay, the 13.07% special contribution and the amount before withholding tax.
This calculator works out Belgian holiday pay (vakantiegeld, pécule de vacances) for private-sector employees in three cases, following the RSZ/ONSS administrative instructions, edition 2026/3.
Double holiday pay for white-collar employees. The single holiday pay is simply the normal salary, paid on during holiday days. The double holiday pay is 92% of the gross monthly salary, scaled to the months worked in the previous year. A special employee contribution of 13.07% is due on 85/92 of it. Example: €3,500 a month and a full year gives €3,220.00, a contribution of €388.83 and €2,831.17 before withholding tax.
Leaving pay. When a white-collar contract ends, the employer pays vertrekvakantiegeld: 15.34% of the gross pay earned in the current year (7.67% single and 7.67% double), plus what is still due for the previous year's pay, the single pay for untaken days and the double pay if not yet received. The instructions' example: €40,000 earned in 2023 gives €3,068.00 single and €3,068.00 double.
Blue-collar workers. Their holiday pay comes from the holiday fund: 15.38% of the previous year's wages counted at 108%, plus notional pay for assimilated days. €31,150 of counted pay gives €4,790.87.
Not included. Withholding tax, extra-legal top-ups, part-time changes, the 10% advance and year-end settlement at a new employer, and youth, senior or start holidays. An estimate, not legal advice.
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A white-collar employee's double holiday pay (dubbel vakantiegeld) is 92% of the gross monthly salary, in proportion to the months worked in the previous year. A full year on €3,500 a month gives €3,220. The RSZ instructions give 6/12 × 92% × €2,800 = €1,288 for six months.
The employee pays a special social-security contribution of 13.07% on double holiday pay, but only on 85/92 of it: the part for the third day of the fourth holiday week onwards is exempt. On €3,220 the contribution falls on €2,975 and comes to €388.83, before withholding tax.
A white-collar employee who leaves receives leaving holiday pay of 15.34% of the gross pay earned in the current year, 7.67% single and 7.67% double, plus whatever is still due for the previous year. The RSZ example gives €3,068 single and €3,068 double on €40,000.
A blue-collar worker's holiday pay comes from the holiday fund, not the employer: 15.38% of the previous year's wages counted at 108%, plus notional pay for assimilated days such as sickness. The RSZ example takes €31,150 of counted pay to €4,790.87 of gross holiday pay.
The new employer calculates holiday pay as if the employee had worked there all year and deducts the leaving pay already received from the previous employer. Since 2024 it pays an advance of 10% of the daily pay for each holiday day and settles the balance in December.
The single holiday pay counts as normal salary, so ordinary social-security contributions apply. The double holiday pay carries no ordinary contributions, only the special employee contribution of 13.07% on 85/92 of it. For blue-collar workers the employer pays contributions on wages raised by 8% instead.
Rates and rules change; check the source before you rely on a figure.
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