Country file

What it costs an employer to hire in Netherlands

An employer in the Netherlands pays €74,778 on a gross salary of €60,000. That is 24.6% more than the salary.

At €120,000 the employer adds 19.0%, because the contribution ceilings start to bite.

Every rate below comes from a statutory source with the date it was read. The figures are for 2026.

A mid salary of €60,000

Employer-side statutory contributions on a gross salary of €60,000 a year. Each line is capped at the range shown, so the amount is the rate applied to the part of the salary that falls inside that range.
Contribution	Rate	Annual base charged	Amount	Source
Aof, disability insurance, small-employer rate	6.27%	€79,409	€3,762	source checked 2026-08-21
Zvw, health insurance employer levy	6.10%	€79,409	€3,660	source checked 2026-08-21
AWF, unemployment fund, permanent-contract rate	2.74%	€79,409	€1,644	source checked 2026-08-21
Whk, differentiated return-to-work premium, average	1.52%	€79,409	€912	source checked 2026-08-21
Statutory employer contributions			€9,978

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Everything the law obliges the employer to pay. It excludes anything discretionary, anything an EOR charges, and any insurance premium that is set per employer rather than by statute.
Gross salary	€60,000
Statutory employer contributions	€9,978
Mandatory extra pay (0.96 months)	€4,800
Total employer cost	€74,778
Added on top of the salary	24.6%

A senior salary of €120,000

Employer-side statutory contributions on a gross salary of €120,000 a year. Each line is capped at the range shown, so the amount is the rate applied to the part of the salary that falls inside that range.
Contribution	Rate	Annual base charged	Amount	Source
Aof, disability insurance, small-employer rate	6.27%	€79,409	€4,979	source checked 2026-08-21
Zvw, health insurance employer levy	6.10%	€79,409	€4,844	source checked 2026-08-21
AWF, unemployment fund, permanent-contract rate	2.74%	€79,409	€2,176	source checked 2026-08-21
Whk, differentiated return-to-work premium, average	1.52%	€79,409	€1,207	source checked 2026-08-21
Statutory employer contributions			€13,206

Scroll sideways on a phone.

Everything the law obliges the employer to pay. It excludes anything discretionary, anything an EOR charges, and any insurance premium that is set per employer rather than by statute.
Gross salary	€120,000
Statutory employer contributions	€13,206
Mandatory extra pay (0.96 months)	€9,600
Total employer cost	€142,806
Added on top of the salary	19.0%

The formula

total employer cost = gross salary + sum over each statutory contribution of rate x max(0, min(salary, ceiling) - band floor) (zero if the contribution applies only below a wage the salary exceeds) + gross salary x (mandatory extra months / 12) + gross salary x mandatory severance accrual rate

Each ceiling above applies only to its own line, which is why the employer percentage for Netherlands is not the same at both salaries. Employer contribution ceilings, country by country lists where every ceiling on this site sits.

Time off, extra pay and leaving

Statutory paid leave	20 days
Public holidays	0
Mandatory extra pay	0.96 months
Minimum employer notice	4 weeks

Statutory minimum leave is four times the weekly working hours, which is 20 days on a five-day week. Dutch law grants no separate statutory right to paid public holidays in the private sector; those come from the collective agreement or the contract, though about eight are observed by near-universal custom.

Holiday allowance of 8% of gross annual salary is statutory and paid on top of wages, under the Minimum Wage and Minimum Holiday Allowance Act.

The statutory transition payment is a third of a month's salary per full year of service, pro-rated, capped at 102,000 euro or one year's gross salary if that is higher.

What the percentage hides

All four employer premiums share the same 2026 ceiling of 79,409 euro, so the marginal employer cost above that level is zero.

AWF and Aof both carry a higher rate for flexible and temporary contracts. The permanent-contract rates are shown here as the standard case.

A second-pillar occupational pension is not universally statutory. It is mandatory only where a sector pension fund or collective agreement applies, and it is excluded from the totals.

Not confirmed on a statutory source, and therefore not in any figure above: the exact Whk premium, which is employer and sector specific; sector-mandatory occupational pension rates.

Using an employer of record in the Netherlands

Everything above is what the state takes. An employer of record adds its own fee on top, and that fee is a flat monthly amount rather than a percentage, so it weighs far more on a junior salary than a senior one. The published prices are here, and the calculator will add one to the figures on this page.

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Written by Kaz, independent publisher. No commercial relationship with the providers named unless it is listed on the disclosure page.

Page last updated 2026-08-30. Sources: statutory bodies only, listed per figure. Rates last verified 2026-08-21. This is not legal, tax or payroll advice and we do not file anyone's payroll.

Every formula on this site is written out in full on Method. Ordering is by computed cost, never by what a provider pays us.

Corrections: contact form.