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Understand · Payroll glossary

What is pay seniority?

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Pay seniority is the number of years of service that count towards your salary: it moves you up your salary scale. In Dutch: geldelijke anciënniteit.

Definition of pay seniority

It is not the same as seniority of service or seniority in grade. It is based mainly on actual service in the public sector; depending on each administration’s rules, part of your experience in the private sector or as a self-employed person may also count.

A mistake in calculating it carries through to every payslip: it is worth checking when you are hired.

Worked example

In education in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, the salary rises every two years from 5 years of seniority, up to the top of the scale after 25 years (master’s degree) or 27 years (primary teachers, bachelor’s degree). A teacher who started at 23 with a master’s degree therefore reaches the top at around age 48.

In Dutch: geldelijke anciënniteit

On a Dutch-language payslip or HR document, pay seniority is called ‘geldelijke anciënniteit’; on a French-language one, ‘ancienneté pécuniaire’.

Dutch term taken from: FPS BOSA.

Not to be confused with…

  • Seniority of service: it counts for other rights (leave, promotion), not necessarily for your salary.

Calculate it for your situation

Tenured or temporary: net pay, the workload in periods, holiday pay, the year-end bonus and the summer for temporary teachers.

Teacher

Related terms

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.