One question, one answer.

The Belgian rules for 2026, one question at a time: the short answer first, the details next, and the official sources at the end.

Student jobs

• Student jobs in Belgium 2026: how many of your 650 hours are left?In Belgium in 2026, you can work 650 hours per calendar year on a student contract and pay only a 2.71% solidarity contribution on your gross pay, all employers combined; the counter goes back to 650 hours on 1 January, and unused hours do not carry over. Your official balance is on Student@work (NSSO): it deducts the hours your employers declare in the Dimona, which are planned hours, sometimes before you have worked them. Beyond 650 hours you stay on a student contract but pay ordinary contributions: 13.07% of gross pay at the full rate, reduced by the work bonus if your pay is low.
• Tracking your student or flexi-job hours in Belgium in 2026: Student@work, a spreadsheet or an app?For your 650 student hours in Belgium, the official counter is Student@work (NSSO): it has the final say, but it starts from the hours your employers plan in the Dimona, corrected later, not from what you do day by day. For a flexi-job, the official counter is mycareer.be. A spreadsheet or an app such as Trakko is for logging your real hours with all your employers and seeing the ceilings coming, as long as you regularly check it against the official counter.
• Non-EU students in Belgium: how many hours can you work in 2026?In Belgium in 2026, if you come from outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland and hold a student residence permit, your residence card says ‘labour market limited’: you can work up to 20 hours a week during the school year, with no such limit during school holidays, and your work must stay compatible with your studies. You do not have to apply for a work permit: your residence permit is enough, anywhere in Belgium. On a student contract, your hours count towards the same 650 hours per calendar year at a 2.71% contribution as a Belgian student’s.

Child benefit

• Student jobs and child benefit in Belgium (2026): the limits region by regionIn 2026 the limit depends on the region where you live and is counted in hours, never in euros. Brussels: 240 hours per quarter, all contracts combined, summer free only if you carry on studying; Wallonia: 240 hours per quarter, summer included, not counting your student-contract hours as long as you stay within your 650 hours; Flanders: 80 hours a month outside student contracts (your student hours beyond 650 count towards it); German-speaking Community: 175 hours per quarter outside student contracts. The limits start on 1 September of the year you turn 18 in Brussels and Wallonia, the month after your 18th birthday in Flanders and on your 18th birthday in the German-speaking Community, and the entitlement ends at 25. Go over the limit and your parents lose that quarter’s child benefit (that month’s Groeipakket in Flanders).

Tax and dependants

• Student jobs in Belgium 2026: tax, tax return and staying your parents’ dependantOn your 2026 income you pay no income tax as long as your net taxable income stays under €11,550 (the tax-free allowance raised by the law of 15 July 2026), which is €16,500 taxable gross if your only income is student work; you still have to file a tax return in 2027. Within your 650 hours, your employer withholds no tax. Your parents can keep you as a dependant for tax if your 2026 net resources do not exceed €12,300: the first €7,010 of taxable gross earned on a student contract is left out, then 20% expenses are deducted (at least €580), which comes to about €22,385 taxable gross if you only have student jobs.

Health insurance

• Student jobs and health insurance in Belgium 2026: when must you register yourself?If you are under 25 and registered with your health insurance fund (mutualité, ziekenfonds) as a parent’s dependent child, your student job changes nothing: the NIHDI (INAMI, RIZIV) sets no income limit for dependent children. The limit applies to other dependants, for example if you are your spouse’s or partner’s dependant: €3,193.10 gross per quarter, the latest amount published (second quarter of 2026). At 25 you are no longer a dependent child and usually register in your own name as a titulaire (students: €78.93 contribution per quarter in 2026); earlier if your job gives you rights in your own name.

Flexi-jobs

• Flexi-jobs in Belgium 2026: cap, conditions and minimum payIn 2026, you can take a flexi-job if you worked at least 4/5 of a full-time job for another employer three quarters earlier (quarter T-3), or if you are retired. No employee social security contributions are deducted: in a flexi-job, gross pay is net pay. If you are not retired, your flexi income is tax-free up to €18,440 for 2026, holiday pay included; above that, only the excess is taxed. In hospitality (horeca), the minimum has been €12.11 an hour since 1 September 2026, plus 7.67% flexi holiday pay (€13.04 in total); elsewhere, it is at least the pay scale for your job.

Pensioners

• Retired in Belgium in 2026: how much can you earn on top of your pension, with or without a flexi-job?In 2026, you can earn without limit on top of your retirement pension from 1 January of the year you reach the statutory retirement age (65, 66 or 67, depending on your year of birth) or if you have a 45-year career; there is also no limit with a transitional allowance. Otherwise, with an early retirement pension, your earned income may not exceed €10,432 gross a year (€15,648 with a dependent child), including at most €8,121 from a flexi-job; with a survivor’s pension only, the limit is €24,289 gross a year before the statutory retirement age. Above the limit, your pension is cut by the same percentage as the excess, and by half that percentage for the flexi limit. With a statutory retirement or survivor’s pension, your flexi income is tax-free, whatever the amount.

Pay

• Hospitality (horeca) 2026 in Belgium: student pay, extras (50 days) and SundaysIn 2026, the lowest hourly pay scale in Belgian hospitality (joint committee 302) is €15.21 gross: as a student you are entitled to all of it from age 18, and to 70, 80 or 90% of it at 15, 16 or 17. On top of your 650 student hours, you can work 50 days a year as an extra, never more than 2 days in a row for the same employer. On Sundays and public holidays the sector adds €2 per hour worked, €12 a day at most: pay is only doubled for overtime.
• Unpaid or late wages in Belgium: the legal deadline and what to doIn Belgium, your wages must be paid on the date set by a collective agreement or by the work rules; the work rules cannot set a date later than the 7th working day after the pay period. With no date set, wages must be paid by the 4th working day after the pay period at the latest (law of 12 April 1965). Saturday counts as a working day, Sundays and public holidays do not: with no other date agreed, a monthly wage for September 2026 must reach your account by Monday 5 October 2026. Late wages automatically carry interest; ask for your pay in writing, keep your evidence, then turn to the Social Legislation Inspectorate (FPS Employment), a trade union or the labour court.
• Student minimum wage 2026 in Belgium: how much per hour at your age?Since 1 July 2026, Belgium’s guaranteed average minimum monthly income (RMMMG) is €2,233.61 gross a month, or €13.56 gross an hour for a 38-hour week. On a student contract you get 100% of it from age 21, 90% at 20, 85% at 19 and 79% at 18; under 18, whatever the contract, it is 73% at 17 and 67% at 16 and under. Your employer’s joint committee can set its own pay scale, and that scale then applies: in hospitality (horeca), for example, it is at least €15.21 gross an hour from age 18.
• Student job payslip in Belgium: check your five figuresOn your student job payslip, check five figures: the hours paid and your gross hourly rate, the gross pay, the solidarity contribution (2.71% of gross pay within your 650 hours a year), the withholding tax (€0 within those 650 hours with a written student contract) and the net pay, which is gross pay minus those deductions. Example in 2026: 40 hours at €15.50 gross make €620.00 gross, €16.80 contribution, €0 withholding tax and €603.20 net. Above 650 hours, ordinary contributions (13.07%, often reduced by the work bonus) and withholding tax apply.

Hours and overtime

• Student jobs 2026 in Belgium: overtime, breaks and the longest working dayIn Belgium in 2026, an hour becomes overtime beyond 9 hours a day or 40 hours a week with the same employer, or earlier if a collective agreement says so: it is paid +50%, and +100% on Sundays and public holidays, on a student contract as on any other contract. If you work more than 6 hours, you are entitled to a break (15 minutes unless your sector or company has another rule) and to 11 hours of rest between two working days. Under 18: at most 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week, all employers together, a 30-minute break beyond 4 h 30, 12 hours of rest, and no overtime except in cases of force majeure.

Trakko is not an official source: this guide sums up the rules as published by the authorities on the date shown. For an answer you can rely on, check Student@work, mycareer.be or the body quoted.