Work

Steps

1. Register with the municipality (BRP) to obtain your BSN number, used by the tax administration and public services (see the administrations fiche).
2. Search on werk.nl and EURES, and with temp agencies, which are very present in the Netherlands.
3. Check whether your profession is regulated (health, teaching, law…) and have your diploma recognised if necessary.
4. Read your contract and your collective agreement (cao): salary, hours, probation period, leave days above the statutory minimum.
5. If your employer recruited you abroad for scarce expertise, ask whether it can apply for you for the expat scheme, known as the "30% scheme", subject to salary and distance-from-the-border conditions (see the tax fiche NL-IMPOTS-TOUS-002).
6. If you lose your job, apply for the WW from the UWV; if you worked in another European country, ask for the U1 form from the country where you worked: it speeds up processing, but the UWV can also obtain this information directly.

Documents

• Valid ID and BSN number.
• Diplomas and, for a regulated profession, the recognition decision.
• U1 form (periods of work and insurance in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland), to be requested from the country where you worked, for the WW; it is not always required.

Costs and timelines

• 2026 gross hourly minimum wage (age 21 and over): €14.71 on 1 January, €14.99 on 1 July. Reduced amounts before age 21 (€11.99 at age 20 on 1 July 2026). Since 2024, there is no longer a monthly minimum: your salary depends on your hours.
• Holiday allowance (vakantiegeld): at least 8% of the gross salary of the past year (calculated for example from May to May). Beyond 3 times the minimum wage, a written agreement can reduce or remove it.
• Leave: unused statutory days expire 6 months after the end of the year in which you earned them (1 July 2027 for those of 2026), unless a longer period is provided by your cao or in writing (Rijksoverheid). The statutory number of days is at least four times your weekly working time, i.e. 20 days for five days a week, 160 hours for 40 hours (Dutch Civil Code, Book 7, art. 634); your cao or contract may provide more.
• Working time: 12 hours per shift and 60 hours per week at most; 55 hours on average over 4 weeks and 48 hours on average over 16 weeks; 11 hours of rest between two working days (your cao may provide other rules; the 11-hour rest can be reduced to 8 hours once every 7 days if the work requires it).
• Probation period: none for a contract of 6 months or less; 1 month at most for a temporary contract of more than 6 months and less than 2 years, or with no end date; 2 months at most for an open-ended contract or one of 2 years or more (for a temporary contract, your cao may provide other rules).
• WW: 3 months as a basis if you meet the condition of 26 weeks out of 36, then 1 month per year of work history (half a month per year beyond the 10th), 24 months at most. To go beyond 3 months, you must also meet the condition of years of work (jareneis). Weeks worked as a self-employed person do not count towards the 26 weeks.

Common pitfalls

• Resigning: except in special cases, a resignation does not give entitlement to the WW.
• Not understanding your "monthly" salary: check the hourly rate, the number of hours and the holiday allowance, often included in offers as an annual amount.
• Forgetting the U1: it details your insurance periods in other European countries and can speed up processing; without it, the UWV can still query the other country.
• Cross-border workers who live in Belgium or Germany and work in the Netherlands: in case of complete unemployment, you can in principle only claim benefits in your country of residence (if you returned home less than once a week, you can choose between that country and the last country of work).
• Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba): different employment law and minimum wage, not covered here.

What changes by country of origin

• EU, EEA, Switzerland: no work permit; municipal registration and BSN.
• British nationals (including Scots) who settled in the Netherlands after 31 December 2020: the Withdrawal Agreement does not apply; you need a residence permit for a specific purpose, for example work. The Withdrawal Agreement protects those who lived there before 1 January 2021; to be checked with the IND (immigration service).