Working in Amsterdam: contracts and pay

A Dutch job offer looks familiar until you spot the 8% holiday allowance, the one-month probation and the salary test your visa depends on.

The short version

Most Australians come on the highly skilled migrant (kennismigrant) permit. In 2026 you need a gross monthly salary of at least €5,942 if you're 30 or over, or €4,357 if you're under 30 [1].
Only an IND-recognised sponsor can hire you on that permit, and the permit runs for your contract length, up to five years [2].
On top of salary you get a holiday allowance of at least 8% of gross annual pay, usually paid in May or June [3].
Probation is capped at one month on most fixed-term contracts and two months on a permanent one, and none at all on contracts of six months or less [5].
Three temporary contracts in a row, or three years of them, and the next one must be permanent [7].

The kennismigrant route and its salary test

Unless you hold an EU passport, your right to work in Amsterdam usually hangs on one permit: the highly skilled migrant residence permit, known in Dutch as kennismigrant. Australians aged 18 to 30 can also use the Dutch working holiday scheme, but anyone building a career here tends to end up on the kennismigrant route.

The rules are simple on paper. Your employer must be a recognised sponsor on the IND's public register, and the employer applies for you, not the other way round [2]. Your salary must be "market conform", meaning roughly what others earn in the same role, and it must clear a fixed monthly threshold [1][2].

Permit	2026 gross monthly salary (excluding holiday allowance)
Highly skilled migrant, 30 or older	€5,942 [1]
Highly skilled migrant, under 30	€4,357 [1]
Highly skilled migrant, recent graduate (reduced criterion)	€3,122 [1]
EU Blue Card, standard	€5,942 [1]
EU Blue Card, recent graduate	€4,754 [1]

Three details catch Australians out:

Your age on the application date decides the threshold. Turn 30 after you've applied and you stay on the under-30 amount for that application [1].
The amounts change every 1 January. If you change employers, the threshold in force on your new contract's start date applies [1]. A pay rise you negotiated in 2025 may not clear the 2026 bar.
Losing your job starts a clock. You normally get up to three months to find a new sponsor. If you lose your job on or after 22 May 2026 and have held the permit for at least two years, that search period can be up to six months, but never beyond the permit's expiry [2].

The kennismigrant salary also matters for the 30% ruling, the tax break many Australians negotiate. We cover that in our Dutch tax guide; the short point here is that it's a separate salary test, so check both.

Fixed-term vs permanent contracts

The Dutch distinguish sharply between a temporary contract (bepaalde tijd) and a permanent one (onbepaalde tijd). Many employers start international hires on a one-year fixed-term contract, even for senior roles. That's normal, not an insult.

The chain rule

You can't be kept on temporary contracts forever. After three consecutive temporary contracts, or after three years of them, the next contract must be permanent [7]. A sector collective labour agreement (CAO) can set different rules, so check whether one applies to your job [7]. The government has scheduled a change for 1 January 2028 aimed at stopping employers from endlessly renewing temporary contracts, with the details still to be confirmed [7].

What your contract must spell out

Contracts can technically be verbal, but your employer must give you the main terms in writing. Basics like your job, start date, any probation and your pay must reach you within a week of starting. Holiday entitlement, notice periods, pension and any CAO must follow within a month [7]. If you're on a fixed-term contract of six months or more, your employer must tell you in writing at least a month before it ends whether you'll be renewed [7].

Probation and notice: shorter than you're used to

In Australia, a six-month probation is common. In the Netherlands, it would be illegal on most contracts.

Contract type	Maximum probation (proeftijd)
Temporary, 6 months or less	None allowed [5]
Temporary, more than 6 months but under 2 years	1 month [5]
Temporary with no fixed end date	1 month [5]
Temporary, 2 years or more	2 months [5]
Permanent	2 months [5]

Probation must be agreed in writing, it's the same length for both sides, and sick days don't extend it [5]. During probation, either of you can end the contract on the spot without a notice period [5]. There's also no new probation when a contract is renewed or made permanent for the same work [5].

Notice periods work differently too. On a permanent contract, your employer must give at least one month, rising by a month for every five years of service to a maximum of four months [6]. You, as the employee, give one month unless your contract says otherwise. If your notice period is set longer than a month, your employer's must be at least double yours, and yours can't exceed six months [6]. Notice usually runs to the end of a calendar month [6]. A plain fixed-term contract has no notice period at all: it simply ends on the agreed date, unless it includes a clause allowing early termination [6].

Holiday pay, leave and the May surprise

The Dutch holiday allowance (vakantiegeld) is the closest thing to Australian leave loading, only bigger and paid as a lump sum. You're entitled to at least 8% of your gross annual salary, and most employers pay it once a year in May or June [3]. If you earn more than three times the minimum wage, your employer can agree with you in writing to pay less or none, so read the offer carefully [3]. Many offers quote a salary "including holiday allowance". Divide by 1.08 to see the real monthly figure.

Statutory leave is four times your weekly hours, which is 20 days a year on a five-day week [4]. Many employers offer more. Some other differences from home:

Use it or lose it. Statutory leave expires six months after the end of the year you earned it, unless you couldn't reasonably take it [4].
No cashing out. Your employer can't pay out unused statutory leave while you're still employed, even if you ask [4]. Unused leave is paid out when you leave.
Public holidays aren't automatic days off. Dutch law doesn't require them. Your CAO or contract decides, and Liberation Day (5 May) is often a day off only every five years [4].
No long service leave. There's no Dutch equivalent of the long service leave you may have been building at home.

Reading a Dutch payslip

Your first payslip (loonstrook) will be in Dutch, and after that your employer only has to issue one when your pay or deductions change [8]. By law it must show [8]:

Gross salary, broken into parts such as base pay, bonuses and holiday allowance.
The statutory minimum wage that applies to you, so you can check you're above it.
Deductions, including wage tax and national insurance contributions (loonheffing), and any pension contribution.
Your agreed weekly hours and whether your contract is permanent or on-call.
The pay period and both names.

Two things look odd to Australians. First, you won't see anything like the Superannuation Guarantee. Retirement savings come through your employer's pension scheme, often a compulsory sector fund, and contributions are split between you and the employer. Second, health insurance isn't on the payslip at all for most people: you buy your own basic policy and pay the premium directly to the insurer.

The Australian side: treaty, super and the Age Pension

Australia and the Netherlands have had a double tax agreement since 1976, amended by a protocol in 1986 [9]. Employment income is dealt with under its rules for dependent personal services, and in practice the country where you physically do the work usually taxes your salary. If you stay an Australian tax resident, the treaty and foreign income tax offsets stop you paying full tax twice.

The two countries also have a social security agreement, in force in its current form since 1 April 2003 [10]. It does two useful things for workers:

Seconded staff don't pay twice. If your Australian employer sends you to Amsterdam temporarily, you can stay covered by Australia's Superannuation Guarantee instead of also paying into the Dutch system. The ATO handles the coverage rules [10].
Dutch years can help with the Age Pension. Dutch insurance periods can count towards Australia's 10-year residence requirement if you later claim from Australia, and the Dutch state pension covers residence in the Netherlands [10].

Before you sign, check the threshold, the contract type, the probation length and whether the salary includes holiday pay. Those four lines decide more than the headline number. Want to compare offers with people who've signed with Dutch employers? Join Cooee Netherlands, our Facebook group for Australians in the Netherlands, where members trade notes on sponsors, CAOs and what a "competitive package" really means.

Working in Amsterdam: contracts, holiday pay and the kennismigrant route