‘Laziest profession’ in the Netherlands will receive a significantly higher salary in 2024

They are not known for their work ethic, yet they will receive significantly higher wages in the coming years. The 150,000 civil servants of the Netherlands. A new collective labor agreement was concluded this week. Yes, this branch of civil servants receives a higher salary.

Just being told you’re lazy could be reason enough to punch someone in the face – to put it bluntly. Thierry Baudets to say. It may also be gratuitous to call civil servants lazy. However, in the case of yet another communications officer or Spatial Planning policy officer, we think it is justified. Lazy or not, they all get a royal raise. And yet they were already among the best-paid sectors in the Netherlands.

On January 1, 2024, the 150,000 civil servants already received an additional 1.5%, but this pales in comparison to the wage increase they negotiated for the new collective labor agreement. From July 1, 2024, they will all receive an additional 8.5% salary. In addition, all scale amounts will increase by 50 euros, which will lead to an indirect salary increase of 1.1% for civil servants. In total, this amounts to an average pay increase of 11.2% for each government employee.

This is still not all. All civil servants will receive several one-off payments in the near future. They will receive 1,200 euros next month, another 800 euros in November and a final payment of 350 euros in July 2025. These are nice extras to sit on the terrace at the stroke of 5 p.m.

Rumbling abdomen

You may question this hefty wage increase for civil servants. Even before this significant increase, government civil servants were the second best-paid professional group (after the financial sector), as NRC calculated in 2022.

Should the people whose main task is collecting tax money reward themselves even better with this money? We at Manners feel the rumbling in our gut, and it is not because of the crocandels that were sold at lunch today.

More fun and more salary

Not only government officials are improving. The representatives of the best profession for which you do not need a diploma also negotiated very strongly. They receive even more salary in percentage terms than the lazy civil servants.