Staff
Amendments for all entrepreneurs
Yet to come into effect (19)
Transition payment compensation only for small employers
Effective date: 1 July 2026Do you employ someone you want to dismiss after 2 years’ illness? You usually have to pay a transition payment. From 1 July 2026, not all employers will be eligible for compensation for the costs of...
Extra tax on petrol and diesel business cars for employees
Effective date: 1 January 2027Do you offer an employee a business car? For example a lease car or a car from you own fleet? And does your employee also use the car privately or to commute to work? From 1 January 2027, you will pay...
Temporary employment agencies must be certified
Effective date: 1 January 2027Do you run a temporary employment agency? A mandatory certification system for temporary employment agencies will be introduced. Agencies must have authorisation to operate, to combat abuse such as...
30% ruling: compensation for expats down to 27%
Effective date: 1 January 2027Are you an employer? And do you hire highly skilled migrants to work for you in the Netherlands? Or do you post employees with a specific skill abroad? The tax advantage of the 30% ruling (expat...
Zero-hours contracts no longer allowed
Effective date: 1 January 2027Do you employ staff on zero-hours contracts? If the work is structural, you should offer them a (permanent) contract. In the future, zero-hours contracts will no longer be allowed. Workers with...
Remaining labour costs compensation entitlement transfers to new employer
Effective date: 1 January 2027Are you an employer and are you hiring an employee who was previously entitled to labour cost compensation (Loonkostenvoordeel, LKV) from another employer? If so, your employee can apply for a new...
Employer may not keep renewing temporary contracts
Effective date: 1 January 2027Do you offer your staff temporary contracts? In future, you are not allowed to keep on renewing a temporary employment contract (a fixed-term contract). If the temporary contract has been renewed...
Youth minimum wage to go up from 2027
Effective date: 1 January 2027Are you an employer? And do you have employees between the ages of 16 and 20? If so, the youth minimum wage for your employees will go up per 1 January 2027. This will bring the youth minimum wage...
Lower taxation on share options for start-ups and scale-ups
Effective date: 1 January 2027Do you own a start-up or scale-up? And do you want to attract and retain talent? A new tax scheme will make it easier to allow employees to share in the growth of your business through share options....
Offering work to people with an occupational disability will be easier
Effective date: 2025 and 2026Are you an entrepreneur with more than 25 employees? It will be easier and more attractive to employ people with an occupational disability. The government simplified the jobs agreement and quota...
Serious workplace abuse becomes punishable
Effective date: not yet knownDo you work with migrant workers? Criminalisation of labour exploitation will be expanded and made simpler. This will make it easier to detect and prosecute offenders. Victims of human trafficking and...
Employment agencies must help migrant workers with BRP registration
Effective date: not yet knownDo you run a temporary employment agency? If so, you will have extra duties. You will have to help migrant workers you employ to register properly in the Personal Records Database (Basisregistratie...
Rules for highly skilled migrants to change
Effective date: not yet knownDo you work with highly skilled migrants? If so, you will be subject to stricter rules. The Dutch government wants to strengthen the knowledge economy while reducing migration to the Netherlands. This...
Employers to get clarity on replacing sick employee sooner
Effective date: not yet knownDo you run an SME and is one of your employees ill? In future you will know sooner until when you need to keep a sick employee’s workplace available. This way you can start looking for a replacement...
Rules for using a non-compete clause tightened
Effective date: not yet knownDo you have staff and do you use a non-compete clause when an employee leaves your company? More and more often contracts contain non-compete clauses for no good reason. This makes it harder for...
Confidential officer will be mandatory
Effective date: not yet knownAs an employer, you must provide a safe working environment for your staff. You must prevent improper conduct and psychosocial strain among your employees as much as possible. For this reason, it will...
Bereavement leave legally defined
Effective date: not yet knownDo you employ staff? Employees can experience bereavement due to a death. For employees in families with minor children whose partner or minor child has died, bereavement leave will be provided by...
Employers must prevent wage differences between men and women
Effective date: not yet knownAre you an employer? You must make sure men and women within your organisation receive equal pay. In the Netherlands it still happens that women with comparable experience and education get paid less...
Code of conduct will be mandatory in the workplace
Effective date: not yet knownDo you have 10 or more employees? You will be obliged to have a code of conduct to prevent improper conduct in the workplace. Improper conduct is for example, bullying, sexual intimidation,...
Already in effect (5)
Exemption threshold Early Retirement Scheme (RVU) remains in place
Effective date: 1 January 2026Are you an employer? And do you have employees who want to retire before state pension age, for example because they do heavy work? Then you can make use of the Early Retirement Scheme (Regeling voor...
No more labour costs compensation (LKV) for older persons
Effective date: 1 January 2026Are you an employer and do you employ or hire an employee aged 56 or older? From 1 January 2026, you can no longer apply for labour costs compensation (loonkostenvoordeel, LKV) for this employee if...
Employers may no longer deduct housing costs from minimum wage (withdrawn)
Effective date: 1 January 2026Please note: this proposed change in legislation is cancelled. It has been withdrawn on 30 October 2025 (in Dutch). Do you employ staff, such as migrant workers, and do you arrange housing for them?...
Minimum wage to go up on 1 January 2026
Effective date: 22 December 2025Do you employ staff in the Netherlands? From 1 January 2026 the gross statutory minimum wage for employees aged 21 and over will go up to €14.71 per hour. This is an increase of 2.15% compared to the...
Minimum wage up per 1 July 2025
Effective date: 1 July 2025Do you employ staff? The minimum wage and the youth minimum wage are adjusted every 6 months, on 1 January and 1 July. The statutory hourly gross minimum wage for employees 21 and older is now €14.40...
Questions relating to this article?
Please contact the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO