VVT cao. What you must do as a care employer, and the tools to do it.
For home care, district nursing, nursing homes, small-scale living, domestic help and day care with staff. Make an employment contract with the right salary, look up a salary or write a letter. All under the VVT cao.
Make an employment contractAll toolsTools
Choose what you need to do now. Each tool uses the VVT cao and the minimum wage that applies on the date.
Employment contract
For every job with a function group from FWG VVT, and for domestic help. We fill in the salary, probation, notice period, holiday hours and chain rule. You get a pdf to sign.
Make the contractLetters
Extension or end of a fixed-term contract, change and promotion, training costs, the annual increment, reference and resignation.
Make a letterSalary table
All monthly salaries of scales 15 to 80 and domestic help, per step, per month and per hour, with net pay. Also the table from 1 June 2027.
Go to the salary tableJob grading
How to grade a job with FWG VVT, which scale goes with it, and what applies to domestic help, apprentices and the orientation job.
Go to the guideWhat does an employee cost?
All employer costs of an employee: contributions, the PFZW pension, the year-end bonus 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.
| 28 days ahead | Publish the roster. After that only change it if the employee agrees (3.2). |
|---|---|
| Every year | Written agreements on the working pattern: measuring per year or per quarter, the fixed day off and the number of working days a week (3.2 paragraph 3). |
| Every quarter | Give an overview of the hours the employee worked more or less (3.1). |
| Anniversary of joining | One step up, to the top of the scale (4.2.1). |
| May | Pay 8% holiday pay, from age 21 at least €2,654.85 at full time (4.2.12). |
| November | Pay the 8.33% year-end bonus, from age 21 at least €2,803.41 at full time (4.2.11). |
| End of year or quarter | Compensate extra hours or pay them as additional hours at the hourly wage. Anyone who structurally works more gets a contract at the average (2.2, 3.7 and 3.8). |
| 1 January and 1 July | The minimum wage rises. Check the lowest amounts, such as domestic help. If the scale is lower, you pay the minimum wage. |
| 1 June 2027 | Salaries rise by 3.6%, domestic help by at least €95 a month at full time. On 1 June 2028 another 3.6% (VVT cao 2026-2028). |
Rules that often go wrong
The cao rules that differ from the law, or that care employers often miss.
| Working days | Without another agreement at most 3 days a week up to 15 hours, 4 days up to 24 hours and 5 days above that. An extra working day gives €25 (3.2 paragraph 4 and 4.9). |
|---|---|
| Travel time and no-shows | Travel time between clients and between split parts of a shift is paid working time. If a client is not there, you may not book minus hours (annex 2 and 3.6). |
| Irregular hours | A supplement of 22% to 60% on the hourly wage, for evenings, nights, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. In money or in time (4.4). |
| Sickness | No waiting day. The first year 100% of sick pay, including structural supplements, the second year 70% (7.2.1). |
| Holiday | 237.4 holiday hours a year at 36 hours. A day off on a public holiday costs holiday hours, also on 5 May (6.1 and 6.3). |
| Probation | The cao does not regulate probation, the law applies. The contract is in writing and names the VVT cao (2.1). |
| Pension | Pension with PFZW: in 2026 25.90% of the salary above the franchise, half each for employer and employee (7.4). |
| Training | A budget of at least 2% of the payroll. The employer pays the cost of re-registration in the BIG register, the time is working time (5.3 and 5.4). |
Source: cao for nursing homes, care homes, home care and youth health care 2025-2026 (ActiZ, Zorgthuisnl, FNV, CNV, NU'91 and FBZ), generally binding until 31 August 2026 (Government Gazette 2025, 25154). VVT cao 2026-2028: negotiated result of 25 June 2026, revised and signed on 20 October 2026. ActiZ salary tables from 1 July 2026. As of 1 November 2026.
Frequently asked questions
For nursing and care homes and for home care organisations: home care and district nursing, small-scale living, domestic help, support, day care and youth health care. Also when care is paid from a personal budget. A home care organisation is covered with or without a profit motive. The full description is in annex 2 of the cao.
The VVT cao 2025-2026 ran until 31 August 2026 and was generally binding. The new VVT cao 2026-2028 was signed by all parties on 20 October 2026 and applies from 1 September 2026. A declaration of general application has been requested, there is no decision yet. Until then the new cao binds members of ActiZ and Zorgthuisnl, and every employer who includes it in the employment contract. In existing contracts the old terms continue until the new ones apply.
You grade each job with the FWG VVT system. The number of the function group is the number of the salary scale, groups 5 and 10 get scale 15. The employee starts at the step that fits experience or competence and gets one step every year on the anniversary of joining, up to the top. The amounts apply at 36 hours a week.
No wage increase until 1 June 2027. Then 3.6% on top, for domestic help at least €95 a month at full time, and on 1 June 2028 another 3.6%. The commuting allowance goes to €0.25 net per kilometre from 1 September 2026. The cao text 2026-2028 is still to come. We will update the tools as soon as it is there.
Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW). In 2026 the premium is 25.90% of the salary above the franchise of €17,283, up to a salary of €137,800. Employer and employee each pay half. The employee also pays premiums for the collective insurance arranged in the cao.
Would you rather we handled it?
We run payroll for care organisations under the VVT cao: salary scales and steps, the irregular hours supplement, holiday pay in May, the year-end bonus in November, the PFZW pension and the premiums for the collective insurance. Tell us how many people you employ. You'll hear back within one working day.
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