If you hire a junior consultant, in most cases no collective labour agreement applies. There is no sector-wide agreement and no mandatory industry pension fund for organisational and management consultancies. So you agree the pay and the terms yourself.
That freedom has limits. The Civil Code governs the probation period, the non-compete clause, the training you must pay for and what you must put in writing. And the cost is higher than the gross salary: at management consultancies in 2024, about 40 cents on average came on top of every euro of gross pay.
In short
- There is no collective agreement and no mandatory pension fund for consultancies. You must pay the minimum wage (€ 14.99 an hour since 1 July 2026) and 8% holiday allowance.
- In 2024 an employee cost a management consultancy about € 97,000 per FTE on average, of which about € 69,000 was gross pay (CBS).
- Probation and non-compete only in writing. No probation in a contract of six months or less. Mandatory training is free for the employee and counts as working time.
In this article
Which rules apply if there is no collective agreement?
Then only the law and what you agree yourself apply. The overview of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment lists no sector agreement for organisational or management consultancies under business services, only agreements of individual companies (Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Collective agreements in the Netherlands, key figures 2026).
The minimum wage for someone aged 21 or over is € 14.71 an hour since 1 January 2026 and € 14.99 an hour since 1 July 2026 (Government of the Netherlands, minimum wage amounts 2026). On top of that the employee is entitled to holiday allowance of at least 8% of pay (Minimum Wage and Minimum Holiday Allowance Act, article 15).
A pension scheme is not required by law in the Netherlands. An employer only has to offer one if a collective agreement or a mandatory industry pension fund requires it (AWVN, Is a pension scheme mandatory?). Do look at your main activity: a firm that mainly seconds its own people to clients may fall under the agreement and pension fund for temporary employment.
What does a consultant on the payroll cost?
About € 97,000 per FTE per year on average at a management consultancy. For 2024, CBS counted € 9,588 million in staff costs at these firms for 98,800 FTE employees. Of that, € 6,835 million was gross pay (CBS, table 81156ned). That is an average across all firms, including the large ones, and across all positions. It is not a benchmark.
Consultants' hourly pay is well above average. For business analysts and organisational consultants on the payroll, gross hourly pay in 2025 was: 25% earned € 29.80 or less, the middle (median) € 38.70, and 25% earned € 48.50 or more. For all employees the median was € 26.90 (CBS, table 86355NED). A junior is usually at the lower end of that range, but CBS gives no figure by age or experience in this table.
Worked example
In this example a junior consultant earns € 3,500 gross a month for 40 hours. That is € 42,000 a year, plus 8% holiday allowance makes € 45,360. If you use the ratio from the CBS average (staff costs divided by gross pay is about 1.40), this junior costs you about € 63,600 a year. This is an example, not a market salary. Your own pension, car and training determine the real amount.
What probation period may you agree?
At most two months for a permanent contract, and only in writing. A probation period is a period in which you and the employee can end the contract immediately. It must be the same for both parties and agreed in writing (article 7:652 Civil Code).
| Contract | Maximum probation |
|---|---|
| Permanent contract (indefinite term) | 2 months |
| Fixed-term, 2 years or longer | 2 months |
| Fixed-term, longer than 6 months and shorter than 2 years | 1 month |
| Fixed-term without a set end date (for example for a project) | 1 month |
| Fixed-term, 6 months or shorter | no probation |
A new probation period in a follow-up contract with the same employer is only allowed if the new work clearly requires different skills or responsibilities. A probation period that does not meet these rules is void (article 7:652 Civil Code). Void means it does not apply, and you then cannot simply end the contract.
May you include a non-compete clause?
Yes, but only in writing, with an adult employee, and in a fixed-term contract only with a written justification. A non-compete clause restricts the employee in the work they may do after the contract ends. In a fixed-term contract the justification must show that the clause is necessary because of compelling business interests (article 7:653 Civil Code).
For a consultancy the client relationship is often what matters most. A clause that forbids the former employee from working for your clients also restricts them in their work after leaving. So that clause must also meet these rules. The court can annul a clause wholly or partly if it unfairly disadvantages the employee, and can order you to pay compensation if it seriously hinders them (article 7:653 Civil Code).
Record the clause before the start, not afterwards. Research among 11,505 workers in the United States found that about a third received a non-compete only after accepting the offer, and that employees with an early-notice clause were better off (Starr et al., Journal of Law and Economics, 2021). That is American research and says nothing about the Dutch courts, but it does say something about how a junior experiences the clause.
Who pays for training, and may you reclaim study costs?
You pay for training that you as an employer must provide. You must enable the employee to take training needed for their position. If that training is mandatory under the law, EU law or a collective agreement, it is free for the employee, counts as working time and takes place during working hours where possible. An agreement to reclaim those costs is void (article 7:611a Civil Code).
For training that is not mandatory, such as a master's programme or a certification the junior wants, you can agree a study cost clause. That is an agreement that the employee repays part of the costs if they leave within a certain period. The law does not regulate this clause separately. Put it in writing before the training starts, with the amount and a monthly reduction.
Why do employers pay for training that is also valuable to a competitor? Acemoglu and Pischke show that an employer does this when it knows its people better than other employers do and turnover is low. With high turnover, employers invest little in training (Acemoglu and Pischke, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1998, with data on German apprentices). For a small firm this means that training pays off mainly if juniors stay.
What else must you record and pay?
You give the employee the main terms in writing or electronically. These include: the position, the pay, the notice periods, whether they will take part in a pension scheme, the duration and terms of any probation period and the right to training you offer (article 7:655 Civil Code).
- Illness: you continue to pay 70% of wages for up to 104 weeks, in the first year at least the minimum wage (article 7:629 Civil Code).
- End of a fixed-term contract of six months or longer: you inform the employee in writing at least one month in advance whether you will extend. If you do not, you owe compensation of up to one month's wages (article 7:668 Civil Code).
- Dismissal or non-renewal on your initiative: you pay a transition payment of one third of a month's wages per year worked (article 7:673 Civil Code).
Are you considering hiring a freelancer instead of a junior? Then first read what to watch for under the DBA Act and false self-employment. A junior who works permanently in your team, under your direction, is in practice often simply an employee.
Sources
- Dutch Civil Code Book 7, articles 7:611a, 7:629, 7:652, 7:653, 7:655, 7:668 and 7:673, version in force from 8 October 2026. wetten.overheid.nl
- Minimum Wage and Minimum Holiday Allowance Act, article 15. wetten.overheid.nl
- Government of the Netherlands, Minimum wage amounts 2026 (in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. rijksoverheid.nl
- Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment, Collective agreements in the Netherlands. Key figures 2026 (in Dutch), annex II, list of regular agreements by economic sector. officielebekendmakingen.nl
- AWVN, Is a pension scheme mandatory? (in Dutch), accessed 31 October 2026. awvn.nl
- CBS (Statistics Netherlands), table 81156ned, Business sector, labour and financial data, by branch, SBI 702 Management consultancies, 2024. opendata.cbs.nl
- CBS (Statistics Netherlands), table 86355NED, Employees, hourly wage and occupation, 2025 (final, 30 October 2026). opendata.cbs.nl
- Starr, E.P., Prescott, J.J. & Bishara, N.D. (2021). Noncompete agreements in the US labor force. The Journal of Law and Economics, 64(1), 53-84. doi.org
- Acemoglu, D. & Pischke, J.-S. (1998). Why do firms train? Theory and evidence. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113(1), 79-119. doi.org