The amounts for 2026

  • €5,942 gross per month for staff aged 30 and above.
  • €4,357 gross per month for staff under 30.
  • €3,122 gross per month under the reduced level, which applies to recent graduates from Dutch institutions and from listed international universities, and after an orientation year.

All three exclude the holiday allowance of 8 per cent. The same age-based amounts apply to staff transferred within a group, described in moving your own staff to a Dutch branch. The European work permit for highly qualified staff carries its own reduced level of €4,754.

What counts towards the amount

The contractually agreed fixed gross monthly salary, paid into the employee’s own bank account every month. Expense allowances and fixed supplements count when they are contractually agreed and paid monthly in the same way.

What stays outside

  • The holiday allowance.
  • Payment in kind.
  • Variable and irregular elements: overtime, tips, payments from funds.

That last group catches employers out. A package that looks generous on paper falls short once the variable part is stripped away.

The timing rules

The level that applies is the one in force on the date of the application. When an employee moves to a new employer, the level in force when that employment begins is the one to meet. Applications filed in one year with a start date in the next therefore follow the newer amounts.

Two exceptions worth knowing

The income requirement falls away entirely for scientific researchers, guest lecturers and doctors in training. And a simplified procedure exists for knowledge workers staying here for under three months.

Around the salary

The salary is one condition among several. Your company also needs the approval described in becoming an approved employer, and from 2026 it keeps proof that the salary was actually paid, which is set out in what an approved employer promises. The full cost of a Dutch employee sits in employer costs beyond gross salary.

Where this advice stops

Holdwise builds the company structure: the entity, the salary, the tax position. The residence application itself belongs with an immigration lawyer, who follows the case law and the forms week by week. Arrange both in the same conversation and the two sides fit together; arrange them separately and one usually has to be redone.