Understand · Payroll glossary
What is a joint committee?
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A joint committee is the body of a sector where trade unions and employers jointly set minimum wages, bonuses, indexation and working conditions. In Dutch: paritair comité.
Definition of a joint committee
Every employer comes under a joint committee according to its main activity, and its number is on your payslip (200 for the supplementary committee for white-collar workers, for example). Decisions there take the form of collective labour agreements, often made binding for the whole sector.
Your joint committee decides whether you are entitled to a year-end bonus and eco vouchers, and when your salary is indexed.
Worked example
| JC | Sector | Indexation |
|---|---|---|
| JC 200 | White-collar workers, supplementary committee | Every year, on 1 January |
| JC 124 | Construction | Every quarter: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October |
| JC 111 | Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering (blue-collar workers) | Every year, on 1 July |
| JC 209 | Metal manufacturing (white-collar workers) | Every year, on 1 July |
In Dutch: paritair comité
In Dutch-language communications from your sector or social secretariat, a joint committee is called ‘paritair comité’; in French-language ones, ‘commission paritaire’. On Indexo’s English pages: joint committee.
Dutch term taken from: CSC/ACV (secondary source), FPS Employment.
Not to be confused with…
- Collective labour agreement (CLA): a written agreement between trade unions and employers that sets rights for the whole country, a sector or a company.
- Social secretariat (payroll provider): the company that calculates pay and files the social security and tax declarations on the employer’s behalf.
Calculate it for your situation
Compare your salary with your joint committee’s pay scale: the gap in gross and net.
Related terms
- Collective labour agreement (CLA)Indexation and minimum wages · in Dutch: collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst (cao)
- Pay scaleFrom gross to net · in Dutch: barema
- Salary indexationIndexation and minimum wages · in Dutch: indexering
- Year-end bonusBonuses, holiday pay and benefits · in Dutch: eindejaarspremie
Sources
Parameters in force on 1 October 2026. Each parameter links to its source, the official one where it exists; a secondary source is flagged as such.
- Liste des commissions paritaires, FPS Employment.
- Pronostic d’indexation par commission paritaire (June 2026), Partena Professional (secondary source).
- Loonbrief onder de loep 2026 (Dutch-language payslip guide), CSC/ACV (secondary source).
- Paritaire comités en collectieve arbeidsovereenkomsten (CAO’s), FPS Employment.