How much can I work and earn as a job student?
If you start working as a job student, you need to be careful not to exceed some legal limits.
- You have 600 hours per year in which you may work at reduced social contributions.
- You may combine your 600 hours with 190 hours of association work, but you must respect the legal limits. Want to know more? Read the “Rules for association work” page.
- You must respect your child benefit fund’s rules on the number of hours you can work per quarter. Links to the sites of the different child benefit funds can be found on our page on entitlement to child benefit.
- If you earn too much, it is possible that:
- you will have to pay taxes yourself, and
- your parents will have to pay more taxes because you are no longer “dependent” on them.
The infographic “Four things to keep an eye on” gives an overview of the rules. It fits on an A4 sheet, so: print it out and hang it above your bed!
Nog vragen?
Vraag het ons
Kom je ergens niet uit? Geen probleem, wij staan altijd voor je klaar.
Veelgestelde vragen
Neen. Je kan arbeidsrechtelijk slechts werken bij 1 klant /dag van Deltaworx en dus werken met slechts 1 uniek arbeidscontract.
Ja. Je kunt bij één werkgever blijven of gaan jobhoppen. Het maakt niets uit, zo lang je maar binnen je contingent blijft.
Every student who is allowed to do student work in Belgium gets 600 hours in which they can work at reduced social contributions, regardless of their nationality or origin.
Please note that in some cases there are limits or additional obligations you have to fulfil in order to work in Belgium. Read our section I am not Belgian, but I am currently studying in Belgium to find out more.
Want to work more than the 600 hours you get from the government?
You can, but you will pay the normal social contributions.
Once your 600 hours are used up, the normal social contributions are due from the 601st hour worked.
Please note: even after your 600 hours, you remain a student and must therefore have a student contract. The only difference is in the level of social contributions.
During the corona crisis, additional measures were also taken for student work. You can find all the details about that on the page about special corona measures for students.
No. Working as a job student is not tied to a season. You choose when you work and for how long.
Want to sell ice creams for 600 hours in summer? You can. Do you still like to keep hours to do extra work as a Santa later in the year? No problem at all.
Whatever you do, just make sure you:
- stay within your quota;
- be on post for classes or other school activities; you may not work as a job student at those times.
