Holiday entitlement in the Netherlands: a guide for employers
How many holiday days do I give my employees? It sounds like a simple question, but there are a few catches, especially if you want to distinguish between what's legally required and what you offer on top of that as an employer.
Here's what you need to know.
How many holiday days are required?
In the Netherlands, every employee is entitled to at least four times the number of working days per week. For someone working five days a week, that's a minimum of 20 holiday days per year. If someone works four days a week, the minimum is 16 days.
These are the statutory holiday days. You can always give more than that, but less is not allowed.
Statutory and non-statutory: what's the difference?
Statutory holiday days are the mandatory days, so at least 4x the number of working days per week. You're required to give your employees the opportunity to take these days every year. Unused statutory days expire six months after the year in which they were accrued: holiday days from 2026 expire on 1 July 2027. If the employee reasonably couldn't take them, for example due to illness or because work made it impossible, they don't expire. Instead, they lapse only after five years.
Non-statutory holiday days are the days you offer on top of that as an employer. Many collective labor agreements (cao's) require this, but you can offer extra days without one too. Non-statutory days lapse only five years after the year in which they were accrued. Your cao or the employment contract may contain different arrangements, so check those.
Holiday days aren't holiday allowance
In Dutch employment terms, holiday allowance (vakantiegeld, officially vakantiebijslag) is something else. It's at least 8% of gross annual salary, paid at least once a year, usually in May or June. It's separate from the number of holiday days.
Keeping the two separate isn't just good practice, it has practical consequences for when days expire.
Accrual: upfront or afterwards?
One choice you make as an employer is when holiday days become available. There are two common options:
Annually upfront means all days are granted on the first day of the policy year in one go. Someone who starts on 1 January immediately has all 20 days available. That's straightforward to administer, but the downside is that someone who leaves in February could theoretically have taken more days than they've accrued.
Monthly afterwards means days are built up gradually, around 1.67 days per month for a full-time employee. That's fairer when employees join or leave mid-year, and it prevents you from having to pay out too many days when someone leaves.
Which you choose depends on how you want to manage it and how stable your team is.
Unused days: what expires when?
Not every employee uses all their holiday days. What happens then is largely set by law: statutory days expire on 1 July of the following year, non-statutory days lapse after five years. You can give employees more time, for example by letting statutory days stand for longer. Shorter isn't allowed.
Paying out isn't simply an option either. You can't pay out statutory days during employment, only when the contract ends. You can buy out non-statutory days, but only if you both want to.
What does help: let employees know in time when days are about to expire, and make sure they can actually take them. That way days don't pile up, and you can show later that someone had the chance.
Where it tends to go wrong in practice
Many employers don't track statutory and non-statutory days separately, which means that by the end of the year they can no longer tell which days have expired and which haven't. The accrual for part-time workers or people who join mid-year also goes wrong sometimes when it's tracked manually in a spreadsheet.
Does an employee get sick during their vacation? Then those days don't count as vacation days.
How to set this up in Heartsome
In Heartsome, you create a separate policy per leave type, so you can track statutory and non-statutory days independently. You can add or edit a leave policy via Company Settings.
For each policy, you set:
Annual entitlement: how many days per year, and whether to enable pro-rata calculation for part-time workers and people who join mid-year
Accrual frequency: do you go for annually upfront (all days at once) or monthly afterwards (gradual accrual)
Carry-over: how long unused days stay available. For statutory days that's at least until 1 July of the following year, for non-statutory days five years, unless your cao or contract says otherwise
Auto-assign: turn this on if you want new employees to be assigned this policy automatically
A common setup uses two policies: one for statutory holiday days (20 days, auto-assigned) and one for non-statutory days (for example 5 extra days). That way you can see exactly how many of each type each employee still has left, and your employees can see it too.
Or read more about Heartsome for small businesses →
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to track statutory and non-statutory days separately?
Yes, because they have different expiry periods. If you combine them, you won't know at the end of the year which days have expired and which haven't.
Which days are used first?
The law doesn't say. Set out in your leave policy or the employment contract which days are deducted first. The most logical order: first the days that expire first, usually the statutory ones.
What if someone joins mid-year?
They're entitled to a proportional share of the annual holiday days. With monthly accrual this works out automatically, but with an annual upfront setup you'd need to correct it manually. In Heartsome, you can enable pro-rata calculation so this is handled automatically.
What if someone works part-time?
The same rules apply, but the days are calculated proportionally. Someone working three days a week is entitled to a minimum of 12 holiday days (4 x 3). With pro-rata calculation enabled, this is adjusted automatically, even if someone changes their hours.
The rules around holiday days can change over time. This article gives a general overview based on current Dutch employment law, and is not legal advice. If in doubt, always consult a lawyer or HR advisor.
Sources
Government of the Netherlands: Hoe kan ik mijn vakantiedagen opnemen? (in Dutch)
Government of the Netherlands: Hoe hoog is mijn vakantiegeld? (in Dutch)
Dutch Civil Code, articles 7:634, 7:638, 7:640a and 7:642