Employer of record in the Netherlands: costs and rules

Five Dutch rules that change the budget

The Netherlands has had no fixed monthly minimum wage since 2024. The floor is hourly: EUR 14.71 from January 1, 2026 and EUR 14.99 from July 1, 2026 for workers aged 21 and up. Beyond that:

• Holiday allowance is on top of salary. Vakantiebijslag is at least 8% of gross wages (Wet minimumloon en minimumvakantiebijslag, art. 15 and 16). Above three times the minimum wage, the parties may agree in writing to less.
• The contract type sets the WW premium. The low AWf rate of 2.74% applies only to written, permanent contracts that are not on-call. Fixed-term contracts pay 7.74%, and a contract of 30 hours or less that runs more than 30% over its hours is moved to the high rate retroactively.
• Probation depends on contract length. 2 months for permanent contracts and fixed-term contracts over 2 years, 1 month for fixed-term contracts over 6 months but under 2 years, and none at all for contracts of 6 months or less.
• Your notice grows with service. 1 month under 5 years, then 2, 3 and 4 months from 5, 10 and 15 years. The employee gives 1 month unless the contract says otherwise.
• The transition payment starts on day one. One-third of a monthly salary per year of service, prorated, including holiday allowance and fixed and variable extras, capped at EUR 102,000 gross in 2026 or one year's gross salary if higher.

Leave is at least four times the weekly hours (20 days on a five-day week), and statutory days expire 6 months after the year they were earned. The eight recognized holidays fall on 11 calendar days in 2026, but no statute gives a paid day off for them; the CAO or the contract decides.

Employment costs and rules in Netherlands

What an EOR charges to employ someone in Netherlands

A EUR 35,546 hire, priced line by line

Assumptions: a written permanent contract (AWf low), Aof at the high rate that a large employer such as an EOR pays, and Whk at the 2026 average. All premiums apply to the premium wage of 35,546 + 2,843.68 = EUR 38,389.68, which is under the EUR 79,409 maximum.

A fixed-term contract adds 5% x 38,389.68 = EUR 1,919.48 at the high AWf rate, for 33.37%. Your sector's Whk rate can sit anywhere from about 0.38% to 6.08%. Above EUR 79,409 of pay a year, no further premiums are due, so the percentage falls for senior hires.

An exit after one year would owe a transition payment of (35,546 / 12 x 1.08) / 3 = EUR 1,066.38, before variable pay. More salaries: the international employee cost calculator. More countries: the EOR cost index.

EOR or a Dutch entity of your own

At $599 a month the fee is EUR 6,387.63 a year per person, 14.04% on top of the EUR 45,487.93 employment cost above. Your own Dutch entity removes the fee but leaves you running payroll, the two-year sick pay duty and the CAO checks yourself. We have not priced Dutch entity setup; our EOR versus own entity comparison lists what to weigh.

Dutch freelancers instead of employees

A self-employed contractor costs none of the 27.97%, and that gap is the risk. If the person in practice works like an employee, the relationship can be treated as employment and those costs come back. Real freelancers can be paid through a contractor payment platform. To hand the classification question to a provider, a contractor of record service costs $325 a month at Remote or $400 at Multiplier on annual billing (checked October 2026).

Picking an EOR for the Netherlands

On our published scores, Multiplier leads at 79/100 and Oyster follows at 64/100. Multiplier's Core plan is $459 a month on annual billing or $499 month to month, and it sizes the deposit from employment costs, fees and notice periods, so Dutch notice of up to 4 months for long service can push that deposit up. Oyster is a flat $699 with a deposit of at least one month of total service cost under its terms (its pricing page, in the fee table, gives no amount), credited about 60 days after the end date.

Remote's Netherlands country page (checked October 16, 2026) uses a EUR 66,956 maximum wage instead of the 2026 EUR 79,409, and shows a EUR 1,995 monthly minimum wage although the Netherlands has had only an hourly minimum since 2024. Terms and complaints are in our Remote review, Deel review and Oyster review, plus the full EOR ranking. Neighbors: EOR costs in Belgium and Germany.