The indefinite ('onbepaalde tijd') contract is the legal default. It can only be terminated by the employer via one of eight statutory 'reasonable grounds' (with UWV permit or subdistrict-court approval), mutual consent, or employee resignation with notice.
Fixed-term ('bepaalde tijd') contracts capped by the ketenregeling: max 3 consecutive fixed-term contracts within a 3-year period; a 4th contract or exceeding 3 years total automatically converts to indefinite (a break of over 6 months resets the chain). Employer must inform employee in writing at least 1 month before expiry if the contract lasted 6+ months.
No single statutory 'full-time' number — 36, 38, 40 hours/week all common by sector/CBA. The Working Hours Act sets outer limits: max 12 hrs/shift, max 60 hrs in any one week, averaged max 55 hrs/week over 4 weeks, averaged max 48 hrs/week over 16 weeks. No mandated overtime premium by statute — governed by CBA/contract.
Indefinite contracts: max 2 months. Fixed-term under 6 months: no probation allowed. Fixed-term 6 months-2 years: max 1 month. Fixed-term 2+ years: max 2 months. Either party may terminate immediately during probation without notice or statutory ground.
Dutch law does not require a 13th/14th month salary. Mandatory is vakantiegeld (holiday allowance) of at least 8% of gross annual salary (Art. 15-17 WML), usually paid in May/June or spread monthly. Many CBAs additionally pay a discretionary year-end bonus (eindejaarsuitkering, often ~8.33%) functioning like a 13th month, but this is contract/CBA-based, not statutory.
No general statutory restriction reserves job titles for Dutch nationals. Non-EU/EEA/Swiss nationals generally need a single permit (GVVA) or Highly Skilled Migrant residence permit tied to an IND salary threshold. Regulated professions (healthcare BIG register, law, financial services) require licensing regardless of nationality.
Approximate 2026 employer-paid contributions, capped at the SV-wage ceiling of €79,409/year: AWf/WW unemployment 2.74% (indefinite)/7.74% (flex); Aof/WIA disability 6.27% (small employer)/7.63% (large employer); Whk return-to-work fund averaging ~1.52% (range ~0.38%-6.08%); Zvw healthcare 6.10%; Wko childcare 0.50%. Summed at typical rates ≈17-18%; treat as illustrative, not fixed. NOTE (added 2026-08-24): this 17.81% figure is statutory social-insurance contributions ONLY and does NOT include the separate mandatory 8% vakantiegeld holiday allowance (tracked in the 13th/14th salary fields) — total employer cost of employment ≈ 25.81% (17.81% + 8%). This differs from the figure currently live on remofirst.com/country-guide/netherlands (19.7% before vakantiegeld, going to ~27.7% after), which is built from different and partly stale component rates not yet reconciled with this project's research (e.g. its Zvw line shows 6.51% vs. our verified 6.10%; its Work Resumption Fund line shows ~3.00% vs. our researched ~1.52% national average — though Whk is employer-specific so RemoFirst's real rate could genuinely differ). Also open: whether Aof should use the large-employer rate (7.63%) instead of small-employer (6.27%) given RemoFirst's scale, which would move this figure to ~18.49% — not yet resolved, do not change the 17.81 field value until confirmed.
Employees don't see separate AWf/Aof/Whk/Zvw deductions on their payslip — the 'employee social contribution' is the national insurance premium block (AOW 17.90% + Anw 0.10% + Wlz 9.65% = 27.65%), built into the lowest Box 1 income-tax bracket (35.70% combined rate up to €38,883 in 2026) rather than itemized separately. Employees also pay a flat nominal Zvw premium (~€150-160/month) directly to their insurer, not included in this figure.
In addition to statutory leave, employees are entitled to the following statutory benefits:
The Netherlands funds social security through a split system: employer-paid contributions plus national insurance premiums embedded in the employee's income tax bracket.
Employees also pay a flat nominal Zvw premium directly to their private insurer.
The Netherlands has no standalone mandatory workers' compensation scheme. Work-related injury/illness is covered through the general sickness mechanism:
Statutory severance is the transitievergoeding (transition payment), owed whenever the employer initiates termination — no minimum service requirement since the 2020 WAB reform.
There is no statutory 13th or 14th month salary in the Netherlands.
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Your employee's hours, time off, holidays, bonuses, and commissions are automatically calculated into payroll. RemoFirst will invoice you in either US Dollars (USD), Euros (EUR), British Pounds (GBP), Canadian Dollars (CAD), Australian Dollars (AUD), or Singapore Dollars (SGD) around the 15th of each month to make sure your employees are paid on time. To make it even easier, you can summarize your entire global team's salaries to aggregate them into one payment (instead of many individual payments).
Unlike full-time employees, contractors work on projects with multiple companies at a given time and are technically self-employed. Full-time employees are solely focused on their employer and usually receive benefits (such as health insurance, equity or stock options, and time off) as an additional form of compensation. While it can be cheaper to work with international contractors instead of paying benefits to a full-time employee, you run the risk of misclassification. It's recommended to work with an EOR for contractor onboarding and payments, so you can know that your international contractors are paid compliantly and on time.
Whenever the employee or employer has a question about, or anything else related to international employment, they can speak with our customer support team to get answers from our team of experts.
