Double holiday pay for white-collar workers - a recap

Double holiday pay – what’s in a name?

Double holiday pay is a supplementary amount of holiday pay that an employee receives and which equals 92% of their gross monthly salary. Employees who didn’t work during the entire preceding calendar year will receive 1/12th of that amount for each month they did work (or is considered equivalent to working) during that  year.

The double holiday pay is paid out once a year. In theory, this should happen in the month during which the employee in question takes their main holidays. In practice, however, most employers pay out the double holiday pay in the month of May or June, as it’s more practically convenient for an employer to make all the double holiday pay calculations – i.e. for the entire workforce – at the same time.

Double holiday pay on variable salary – general principles

Under Belgian labour law, the holiday pay of employees whose remuneration is (partially) variable, must be calculated on these variable remuneration elements as well, provided they’re subject to regular social security contributions.

In this respect, ‘variable salary’ must be understood as commissions, extra payments, percentages, discounts and, more generally, variable bonuses whose attribution is linked to an assessment of the employee's performance or productivity, the company’s result, or any criterion making the payment uncertain and variable, irrespective of the periodicity or the time of payment of such bonuses.

The Belgian Court of Cassation added to this that, where the attribution or payment of the bonus is certain yet only the bonus amount is variable, it cannot be considered as variable salary for the calculation of holiday pay.

Bonuses of which the entitlement is already certain (i.e. the employee is certain that they'll receive a bonus), with only the exact amount of the bonus still being variable, would therefore not be subject to holiday pay.

However, the question of whether or not the attribution of a bonus is certain is a highly factual one that can cause a lot of discussion.  As a result, employers often decide to take a prudent approach and calculate holiday pay on bonuses of which it might be argued that the attribution is nevertheless certain.

Note in this respect that single holiday pay on variable salary is itself considered as variable salary. This is because the Belgian Court of Cassation has (repeatedly) confirmed that the single variable holiday pay received by the employee has to be considered as part of the basis of calculation for determining the (single and double) holiday pay of the next year.

Double holiday pay on variable salary – moment of calculation

To calculate the double holiday pay on variable salary, a monthly average of all gross variable salary elements received by the employee during the 12 months preceding the month during which the employee’s main holidays start has to be taken into account. To calculate the single holiday pay on variable salary, a daily average of all gross variable salary elements received by the employee during the 12 months preceding the month in which the day of leave is taken must be taken into account.

In practice, however, we see that most employers calculate both the single and the double holiday pay on each variable salary element (separately) at the time when the variable salary element is paid out, or once a year (combined) in the month of the main holidays, which is generally in May or June.

If you have any questions regarding annual leave in general and the calculation of double holiday pay specifically – including on the analysis of whether holiday pay is due on a particular variable remuneration element –.do not hesitate to reach out; we’d love to hear from you!