Pay transparency in Netherlands
Bill in parliament
The bill (Kamerstuk 36 949) has been before the House of Representatives since 21 May 2026. A memorandum of amendment followed on 2 September 2026. A legislative committee meeting is scheduled for 14 December 2026 and the plenary debate for around January 2027. The bill must then pass the Senate. The government's target of 1 January 2027 is widely seen as no longer realistic.
Draft · legal review pending, not yet published.
Last checked: 10/11/2026. This overview is not legal advice. Laws change; the linked legal text is what counts.
- In force since
- –
- Job ads
- No rule yet. No pay disclosure is required today. Under the bill, employers must tell applicants the starting salary or salary scale on their own initiative, either in the vacancy or before the interview about terms of employment (arbeidsvoorwaardengesprek). The bill does not require the range in the ad itself.
- Asking about previous pay
- No legal ban yet
- Workers' right to information
- Under the bill, employees can request the average pay, broken down by sex, of colleagues doing equal or equivalent work, but not individual colleagues' pay. No such general right exists yet.
- Pay reporting
- Under the bill, employers with 100 or more employees, counting temporary and agency workers, must report their gender pay gap; a monitoring body publishes the figures. An unjustified gap of 5% or more must be fixed within six months, otherwise a joint pay assessment follows. First reports are expected from 2028 at the earliest.
- Penalties
- The Labour Inspectorate (Nederlandse Arbeidsinspectie) is to enforce the reporting, job-evaluation and pay-assessment duties and can impose fines. Amounts are not verified.
Not verified: Fine amounts: one secondary source mentions up to EUR 10,300, not checked against the bill. The plenary date (week 50 of 2026 vs. 11 January 2027) is inconsistent on the Tweede Kamer page. The first reporting year depends on a draft decree that is not final. The Wetgevingskalender entry was seen in search results only, not opened.
53% of job ads in Netherlands state pay
14,687 of 27,847 ads on employer career sites and applicant tracking systems in the last month; 38% for tech-related titles (669 of 1,779). Measured on 11/11/2026 via Active Jobs DB; includes pay read from the ad text.
IT salaries in NetherlandsSources
- Wetsvoorstel 36949 – Wet implementatie Richtlijn loontransparantie mannen en vrouwen · Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal · 21/05/2026
- Plannen kabinet: meer openheid over loonkloof tussen mannen en vrouwen · Rijksoverheid
- Implementatie richtlijn loontransparantie (Wetgevingskalender) · Overheid.nl
- Wetsvoorstel Loontransparantie nog niet in werking, maar ga wel alvast aan de slag · Salaris Vanmorgen · 19/10/2026