Minimum wage employment edges down while labour strikes stabilize after 2023 peak

The number of people aged 15 and older working for minimum wage declined slightly in 2025 compared with a year earlier. Figures from Statistics Netherlands show there were 610,000 such employees, roughly 6,000 fewer than in 2024, representing 6.7 percent of the total workforce.

In the previous year, the gross minimum hourly wage for workers aged 21 and above stood at 14.06 euros. This was roughly 6 percent higher than the year before and 33.2 percent higher than five years earlier.

In the past five years, the minimum wage has grown faster than both collective labour agreement wages and inflation. The most significant increase came in 2023, when it was lifted by over 10 percent in response to high inflation and declining purchasing power.

In 2025, there were 311,000 women and 300,000 men working for minimum wage. This corresponded to 7 percent of female employees and 6.3 percent of male employees. In the previous year, the shares were slightly higher, at 7.3 percent for women and 6.4 percent for men.

The proportion of workers aged 20 to 25 earning the minimum wage has also declined, from 16.7 percent to 16 percent. Despite this drop, they remain the largest group among minimum wage employees by a wide margin.

In the European Union, only Luxembourg and Ireland have a higher minimum wage than the Netherlands. However, when it comes to growth, the Netherlands is not a frontrunner: in 14 other EU member states, minimum wages have increased by more than the 33.2 percent recorded in the Netherlands over the past five years.

In 2025, the number of labour strikes continued to fall. Statistics Netherlands counted 23 strikes, down by 13 compared with 2024. Following a peak of 52 strikes in 2023, driven in part by high inflation, the figure has now returned to the long-term average for this century.

The number of employees involved in strikes in 2025 fell significantly, totalling just over 10,000, roughly half the level seen in 2024. Even so, the total number of lost working days rose to 60,000, an increase of more than 6,000 year on year.

This was due to strikes lasting longer on average. In contrast to 2024, no strike in 2025 lasted less than a full working day. Statistics Netherlands chief economist Peter Hein van Mulligen said there is no clear explanation for this pattern.

The industrial sector saw the highest number of strikes last year, with 10 in total, although fewer than 1,000 workers were involved. By contrast, the trade sector had the largest workforce participation, with more than 4,000 employees taking part, leading to around 17,000 lost working days.

The biggest strike of last year occurred in the education sector, where a rotating strike led to over 28,000 lost working days. That represented almost half of all lost working days, despite the participation of a relatively small number of workers.

Of the 23 strikes recorded in 2025, 10 were linked to collective labour agreement negotiations. Despite this, workers are increasingly positive about both their CAO and wages.

A Statistics Netherlands and TNO survey found that 83 percent of employees are satisfied with their collective agreement and 80 percent with their salary, both higher than in earlier years. Satisfaction was highest in education at 92 percent, and lowest in the information and communication sector at 70 percent.