Hospitality cao. What you must do as a hospitality employer, and the tools to do it.
For restaurants, cafés, hotels, lunchrooms, snack bars and caterers with staff. Make an employment contract with the right wage, look up a wage or write a letter. All under the hospitality cao 2025-2026.
Make an employment contractAll toolsTools
Choose what you need to do now. Each tool uses the hospitality cao and the minimum wage that applies on the date.
Employment contract
For a cook, waiting staff, bartender, receptionist or dishwasher, skilled or non-skilled. We fill in the wage, probation, notice period and chain rule. You get a pdf to sign.
Make the contractLetters
Extension or end of a fixed-term contract, change, training costs, performance pay on 1 January, reference and resignation.
Make a letterWage table
All monthly wages for skilled staff per function group, from base wage to end wage, and for non-skilled staff and apprentices per age, per month and per hour, with net pay. From 1 January 2026.
Go to the wage tableJob grading
All 207 reference functions from the hospitality handbook, from service and kitchen to reception and management, with the function group and the wage.
Go to the guideWhat does an employee cost?
All employer costs of an employee in your business: contributions, the PH&C pension, the HOP and the cost per productive hour.
Go to the calculatorWhat to do when
The fixed moments of the cao in a year. The article in brackets.
| 1 January | Performance pay: a skilled employee of 20 or older with a full calendar year of service in the same job gets 2% on top, up to the end wage. Not after two years in a row of moderate or poor performance (4.11). |
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| 1 January and 1 July | The minimum wage rises. Check the wages of young staff and the lowest groups: the base wages of groups I+II, III and IV have been at the minimum wage since 1 July 2026. If the table is lower, you pay the minimum wage. |
| 3 weeks ahead | Publish the roster. After that only change it when the business needs it, after consultation (3.3 and 3.4). |
| 24 hours ahead | Call in an on-call worker. If you cancel within 24 hours, you pay the wage (3.5a). |
| After every 12 months | Within a month, offer an on-call worker fixed hours, at least the average of the last 12 months (3.5b). |
| End of the reference period | Count the hours. Extra hours and overtime go as time off within 3 months, otherwise you pay 100% of the hourly wage. Minus hours lapse, unless they are the employee's doing (2.12a, 2.12b and 3.14). |
| June | Pay the 8% holiday pay at the latest (4.17). |
| Every year | Set a development budget of at least 2% of the payroll, for induction, schooling and training. Not compulsory in the first calendar year of a new business (5.1). |
| New cao | Negotiations on a cao from 1 January 2027 started on 19 October 2026. We will update the tools as soon as there is a new cao. |
Rules that often go wrong
The cao rules that differ from the law, or that hospitality employers often miss.
| Sickness | The first day of sickness is a waiting day without pay, except after an accident at work or aggression and violence. Then 70% by law, topped up under conditions to 95% in the first year and 75% in the second year (7.1 and 7.2). |
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| Skilled or not | A skilled employee is 18 or older and has a recognised trade diploma or 1,976 hours of experience in the job. From group V always skilled. Under 18 never. State in the contract whether someone is skilled (1.6, 1.8 and 4.1). |
| Increments | The steps between base wage and end wage have been guidelines since 2025, not compulsory. The 2% performance pay on 1 January does apply (annex II and 4.11). |
| Supplements | No supplement for evenings, nights, weekends or Sundays. Only 10% for a full night shift on the front office of a hotel. Overtime as time off or 100% (3.14 and 4.13). |
| Public holidays | Nine public holidays, 5 May is not one of them. Work on a public holiday gives an hour off per hour, and if that is not possible within 3 months a 50% supplement. Only for skilled staff (3.11 and 3.12). |
| Sunday | You may schedule staff on every Sunday. Anyone who worked 39 Sundays in 12 months may ask for a weekend off (3.6). |
| Holiday | 0.096 hours per paid hour, 190 hours a year at full time. After 10 years of service extra loyalty leave (3.17 and 3.17a). |
| Pension and HOP | Pension with PH&C from age 18: 16.8% of the wage above the franchise, half for the employee, plus 0.34% for the survivor's pension. Also 0.2% to the Horeca Ontwikkel Platform, of which 0.1% for the employee. |
Source: hospitality cao 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026 (KHN, De Horecabond and CNV). Declared generally binding from 2 August 2025 to 31 December 2026 (Government Gazette 2025, 10545). Fund cao HOP generally binding until 31 August 2029 (Government Gazette 2024, 29025). Not for contract catering. As of 29 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
The hospitality cao runs until 31 December 2026 and is generally binding until then, also if you are not a member of KHN. After that the declaration of general application lapses. If you are a member of KHN, the terms continue in existing employment contracts until there is a new cao. If you are not a member, from 1 January 2027 the cao only applies if your employment contract refers to it. A new cao with a new declaration only applies from its publication, not retroactively.
For hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, cafés, snack bars, lunchrooms and caterers, and other businesses that sell lodging or food and drink for consumption on the premises. Also when hospitality is a side activity, if more than half of the payroll belongs to the hospitality part. Not for contract catering: it has its own cao.
The cao uses monthly wages based on 1,976 hours a year. A skilled employee of 20 or older gets at least the base wage of the function group, at 18 and 19 80% and 90%. The increments up to the end wage are guidelines. A non-skilled employee gets a percentage of the base wage of group I+II, by age.
Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering (PH&C), from age 18, if the compulsory scheme of the fund applies. The retirement pension contribution is 16.8%, half each for employer and employee. You also pay 0.2% to the Horeca Ontwikkel Platform, of which you withhold 0.1% from the wage.
Then the new terms apply. Negotiations started on 19 October 2026, the next round is on 12 November 2026. Nothing has been agreed yet on wages for 2027. We will update the tools as soon as the new cao is there.
Would you rather we handled it?
We run payroll for hospitality businesses under the hospitality cao: monthly wages for skilled and non-skilled staff, annual hours, on-call staff, the waiting day, holiday pay in June, the PH&C pension and the HOP contribution. Tell us how many people you employ. You'll hear back within one working day.
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