If you take on your first employed plasterer, the Finishing Trades collective agreement (cao Afbouw) applies. It is generally binding, so it also applies if you are not a member of an employers' association. A plasterer is in group 4b. The guaranteed wage is the minimum wage under the agreement, and it depends on years of experience. With 4 years' experience it is €24.31 per hour in 2026. In the worked example in this piece, that same plasterer costs you €67,180.75 a year. That is €42.86 for every hour of actual work.
In short
- Under the Finishing Trades agreement a plasterer is in group 4b. The guaranteed wage from 1 February 2026 runs from €20.06 without experience to €24.31 per hour with 4 years' experience.
- On top of the wage come 8% holiday pay, employer contributions, a bpfBOUW pension and 2.915% for the training fund. Of the 1,957.5 hours in 2026, 1,567.5 productive hours remain after days off and sickness.
- In the worked example a productive hour costs €42.86, which is 1.76 times the hourly wage. If 15% of the time goes on travel and waiting, an hour you can invoice costs €50.42.
About the amounts: wages, contributions and percentages are the 2026 figures from the agreement, bpfBOUW and the Belastingdienst. The worked example is simplified and is not a payroll calculation. Have the real costs worked out by a payroll administrator who knows the Finishing Trades agreement.
In this article
- What wage do you pay a plasterer under the Finishing Trades agreement?
- What do you pay on top of the hourly wage?
- How many productive hours does your plasterer work in a year?
- What does a productive hour cost in the worked example?
- How many hours can you actually invoice?
- What does it cost if your plasterer falls ill?
- Which costs are not in the worked example?
- What do you arrange before your first plasterer starts?
What wage do you pay a plasterer under the Finishing Trades agreement?
At least the guaranteed wage of group 4b, and that depends on years of experience. Without experience it is €20.06 per hour from 1 February 2026, with 4 years' experience €24.31. The agreement lists the plasterer as job 4.1.2 in group 4b: someone who does all kinds of plastering, including decorative plaster (Government Gazette 2026, 11596).
Relevant experience is experience in the job, including with another employer in a similar job. So state in the employment contract how many years of experience you count. A wall and ceiling sprayer and an external wall insulation applicator are also in group 4b. A restoration plasterer is in group 5b, a working foreman in group 6b.
The minister has declared the agreement generally binding up to and including 31 December 2027. This applies from 18 April 2026, without retroactive effect, and only the pay table as at 1 February 2026 is covered. The 2027 wages were not yet known on 28 October 2026. They rise with inflation plus 1.25%, at least 2.5% and at most 3.75%, and will be announced by 1 December 2026 at the latest (Government Gazette 2026, 11596, article 52).
What do you pay on top of the hourly wage?
Holiday pay, pension, the training fund and the employer contributions. Together they add up to more than 40% of the gross wage in the worked example. Holiday pay is at least 8% and you pay it yourself, in June at the latest (Government Gazette 2026, 11596, article 29). There is no fund that arranges this for you.
Your plasterer builds up a pension with bpfBOUW. For the Finishing Trades agreement, the employer's share in 2026 is 15.007% for the retirement pension, 0.1% for the disability pension and 2.5444% for the risk product. Together that is 17.6514% of the pensionable wage above the franchise of €19,172. The franchise is the part of the wage on which no pension is built up. The employee pays 8.2786% (bpfBOUW, contributions 2026).
For the training and development fund (O&O fonds) you have paid 2.915% of gross wages since 1 April 2026. Before that it was 1.665%. The employee pays 0.065% (Finishing Trades agreement on sector schemes).
Employer contributions in 2026 for a small employer total 17.48% of wages up to €79,409. These are the unemployment contribution (AWf) of 2.74%, the disability fund contribution (Aof) of 6.27%, the childcare surcharge (Wko) of 0.50%, the return-to-work fund contribution (Whk) of 1.87% in sector 57 plastering, and the employer's health insurance levy (Zvw) of 6.10% (Belastingdienst, 2026).
The low unemployment contribution of 2.74% only applies to a written open-ended contract that is not an on-call contract (Belastingdienst). With a temporary contract you pay the high rate of 7.74%. In the worked example that costs €2,559.84 a year extra.
How many productive hours does your plasterer work in a year?
In the worked example 1,567.5 hours. The year 2026 has 261 working days of 7.5 hours, 1,957.5 hours in total. From that come 25 holiday days, 10 rostered days off and 6 public holidays on a working day. For sickness the example deducts another 5%.
An employee aged 18 or over has 25 holiday days a year. In addition, a plasterer builds up one rostered day off per five weeks in the first 50 weeks of the year, so 10 a year (Government Gazette 2026, 11596, articles 23 and 28). In 2026, New Year's Day, Easter Monday, King's Day, Ascension Day, Whit Monday and Christmas Day fall on a working day.
The agreement also sets compulsory days off: in 2026 the Friday after Ascension Day and 28 to 31 December. Your plasterer takes these from the holiday days or rostered days off (Government Gazette 2026, 11596, article 27). So they do not come on top of the 35 days off.
The 5% sickness is an assumption, not a fixed figure. According to CBS, sickness absence in construction was 4.8% in 2025, against 5.4% for all employees together (CBS, 2025). CBS measures the share of sick days in all working days, and that is an average across large and small businesses.
What does a productive hour cost in the worked example?
€42.86. A plasterer in group 4b with 4 years' experience costs €67,180.75 a year in the worked example. That is 1.42 times the gross wage. Divided by 1,567.5 productive hours that is €42.86 per hour, 1.76 times the guaranteed hourly wage of €24.31.
| Item (worked example 2026) | Basis | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Gross wage, group 4b, 4 years' experience | 52 weeks x 37.5 hours x €24.31 | €47,404.50 |
| Holiday pay | 8% of gross wage | €3,792.36 |
| Employer contributions | 17.48% of wage plus holiday pay | €8,949.21 |
| bpfBOUW pension, employer's share | 17.6514% above the franchise | €5,652.84 |
| Training fund | 2.915% of gross wage | €1,381.84 |
| Total | Divided by 1,567.5 productive hours | €67,180.75, which is €42.86 per hour |
The example is simplified. It calculates the training fund at 2.915% for the whole year and on gross wages without holiday pay, while the agreement uses the social insurance wage. The pension is calculated on the wage including holiday pay. What exactly counts as pensionable wage is set out in the bpfBOUW pension rules. If you also include absence insurance of 2.5% of wages and €1,000 of other costs, two assumptions and not fixed amounts, it becomes €44.31 per productive hour.
A plasterer without experience, at €20.06 per hour, costs €54,844.23 a year in the same example. That is €34.99 per productive hour. So the difference between a beginner and an experienced tradesperson is almost €8 per hour.
How many hours can you actually invoice?
Fewer than the productive hours, because travel, collecting materials and waiting for other trades also take time. If 15% of the productive hours go on that, an assumption, you can invoice 1,332 hours a year. Each invoiced hour then has to bring in €50.42 just to cover the labour costs.
Waiting is a real risk in plastering. The agreement says that from 1 September to 1 May the work must be possible without draughts. Draught-free means the building is closed all round with glass or another material that lets light through. As long as that is not the case, the building counts as not yet ready for your work (Government Gazette 2026, 11596, article 100). Your plasterer then still costs wages but produces no productive hours.
For outdoor work, such as external wall insulation, the weather also matters. If work is impossible because of the weather, your plasterer receives 100% of the hourly wage (Government Gazette 2026, 11596, article 54). For frost between 1 November and 31 March you can apply to UWV for an unemployment benefit for unworkable weather after two waiting days (Unworkable Weather Regulation). You then top that benefit up to 100% of the wage (article 55).
What does it cost if your plasterer falls ill?
In 2026 you continue to pay 85% of the fixed wage, with holiday pay, in the first and second year of sickness. From 1 January 2027 it is 90% in the first and 80% in the second year. The agreement has no waiting day (Government Gazette 2026, 11596, article 75). So a sick plasterer costs almost the full wage and produces no hours.
Heavy work is associated with longer absence. Researchers followed 5,867 Dutch construction workers from 2005 to the end of 2006. Manual materials handling was among the factors associated with absence of 2 to 12 weeks and longer than 12 weeks. Of all factors, manual materials handling accounted for the largest share of absence: 20% (Alavinia and others, 2009). The study covers construction workers in general, not only plasterers, and it shows an association, not a proven cause.
Which costs are not in the worked example?
Travel hours, allowances, training and the costs of absence and an occupational health service. They differ per business, so include them yourself. These rules from the agreement apply from 1 February 2026 (Government Gazette 2026, 11596):
- Travel hours: €14 gross per hour of travel, except for the first 45 minutes of the outward and return journey. For someone driving colleagues it is 15 minutes. From 1 January 2027 it is €15.50 (article 69).
- Clothing: if you do not provide overalls and safety shoes, €1.76 net per day worked (article 56).
- Tools: if your plasterer works with their own tools, €0.94 net per day worked (article 57).
- Training: an average of two training days per 12 months with pay (article 90).
Absence insurance, a contract with an occupational health service or company doctor, a van and the hours you spend yourself on planning and supervision are not in the example either. There is no fixed figure for those costs.
What do you arrange before your first plasterer starts?
- Register as an employer with the Belastingdienst no later than the day your first employee starts. You usually receive your payroll tax number within a week (Belastingdienst).
- Provide a written employment contract, stating the job, the group and the number of years of experience you count (Government Gazette 2026, 11596, article 13). Choose an open-ended contract if you can, because then the low unemployment contribution applies.
- Have your payroll administration pay the contributions for pension and the training fund for the Finishing Trades agreement, agreement code 02 at bpfBOUW (bpfBOUW, contributions 2026).
- Draw up an RI&E, a risk inventory and evaluation, with an action plan. This is required even with one employee. Up to and including 25 employees you may use a sector RI&E without external review (Netherlands Labour Authority).
Sources
- Decision of the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment of 14 April 2026 declaring provisions of the Finishing Trades collective agreement 2026-2027 generally binding, Government Gazette 2026, 11596, articles 13, 18, 23, 27, 28, 29, 38, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 69, 75, 90 and 100 and annex 2. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- Finishing Trades collective agreement 2026-2027 and the agreement on sector schemes 2022-2026, version as at 22 July 2026, training fund rules article 2. fnv.nl
- bpfBOUW, Verkorte versie premies 2026 (short version of contributions 2026), version 1.0, 23 December 2025. bpfbouw.nl
- Belastingdienst, Tarieven, bedragen en percentages loonheffingen vanaf 1 januari 2026 (payroll tax rates, amounts and percentages from 1 January 2026), annex to the Payroll Tax Newsletter 2026, tables 9, 10, 11 and 12. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Premiedifferentiatie WW: lage en hoge WW-premie (low and high unemployment contribution), accessed 28 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Belastingdienst, Aanmelden als werkgever (registering as an employer), accessed 28 October 2026. belastingdienst.nl
- Regeling onwerkbaar weer (Unworkable Weather Regulation), articles 1, 2 and 3. wetten.overheid.nl
- CBS, De arbeidsmarkt in cijfers 2025 (the labour market in figures 2025), chapter on working conditions, table 4.14. cbs.nl
- Netherlands Labour Authority, Risico-inventarisatie en -evaluatie en plan van aanpak (risk inventory and evaluation and action plan), accessed 28 October 2026. nlarbeidsinspectie.nl
- Alavinia, S.M., van den Berg, T.I.J., van Duivenbooden, C., Elders, L.A.M. & Burdorf, A. (2009). Impact of work-related factors, lifestyle, and work ability on sickness absence among Dutch construction workers. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 35(5), 325-333. doi.org