Increase in minimum hourly wage effective January 2026 

Good news for workers: the legal minimum wage will increase to €14.71 gross per hour for workers aged 21 and older as of Jan. 1, 2026. That's a 2.15% increase over the current minimum wage, which is €14.40.

How is the minimum wage determined? 

The minimum wage increases every year according to a legal regulation. This takes into account how wages develop in the Netherlands. It also takes into account the effect of wage increases in previous years, so that the minimum wage moves fairly with the times. 

Deviations from this rule almost never occur, for example, only if wages rise very rapidly or the number of people on benefits rises sharply. Right now, this is not the case: wages are rising faster than prices, unemployment is low, and the number of employed and non-employed people is changing only slightly due to aging. 

What does this mean to you? 

For employees and temporary workers, this increase means better pay for your work. For employers, it is good to take the new rates into account ahead of time when planning payroll and personnel costs. 

At Flexspecialisten we always keep a close eye on the developments surrounding the minimum wage and are already carefully preparing for the upcoming wage increases. With our full service we make sure that employees are correctly remunerated according to the current collective bargaining agreements, so that we completely unburden our clients.