Bonuses

Bonuses are irregular payments not laid down in the employment contract, e.g. performance-related bonuses. This publication provides more detailed information on irregular payments (bonuses). The figures are always calculated on an annual basis.
Employees in the Netherlands receive a wage as laid down in their employment contract plus special bonuses. Special bonuses include holiday allowances, pre-negotiated bonuses and irregular bonuses. Pre-negotiated bonuses are laid down in the employment contract, which may be an individual contract or a collectively negotiated contract. Pre-negotiated bonuses include end-of-year bonuses, 13th-month bonuses, gratuities, etc. Irregular bonuses are not included in the employment contract.
The annual bonus paid to employees is the annual total of irregular bonuses paid per sector of industry divided by the labour volume. As the distribution of full-time and part-time jobs tends to differ across the various sectors of industry, this approach is preferred to calculation per job, but the distribution of bonuses per employee is calculated per job.