Student work will be allowed for up to 650 hours per year
25 Mar 2025
The new Belgian government’s first employment-related legislative initiative is about to be adopted by the Chamber of Representatives. Last week, the Chamber’s Social Affairs Committee approved a draft act to increase the student work threshold to 650 hours per year. The Chambers’s plenary session is scheduled to vote the draft act into law on Thursday 27 March 2025.
As a reminder, this student work threshold determines the maximum number of hours during which students can work while benefiting from reduced social security contributions (5.42% at charge of the employer and 2.71% at charge of the employee) and an exemption from withholding taxes, if a number of conditions are met. For more detailed information on these conditions, we refer to our earlier newsletter that covers the general principles of student work.
Until a few years back, the student work threshold was set at 475 hours per year. However, following the repercussions of the COVID-19 health crisis, the De Croo government temporarily raised this threshold to 600 hours per year for the years 2023 and 2024.
As one of their measures to modernise Belgian labour law and increase flexibility in filling personnel needs in a tight labour market, the new government now structurally increases the threshold to 650 hours per year, effective retroactively from 1 January 2025.
Key takeaway
Building on higher student work thresholds in 2023 and 2024, this legislative update increases the threshold even more, giving students more opportunities to gain valuable professional experience and helping employers meet their flexible staffing needs. Companies can already take the new 650 hours per year threshold into account when recruiting students to join their teams during the summer season.
If you have any questions regarding the increase of the student work threshold or student work in general, don’t hesitate to reach out: we’d love to hear from you.
