It would help if more Dutch people started working full-time. But working more hours sometimes barely means more money, writes De Telegraaf. Calculations by the budget institute Nibud give a disconcerting picture: of the extra gross wages earned, sometimes only 10 or 20% remains. This is mainly because with a higher income allowances disappear. If you start earning more, you are less entitled to health care allowance, rent allowance and childcare allowance. That turning point is often around working 24 hours a week.
If a mother of two children with social housing were to go from an annual income of 25,000 to 40,000 euros, for example because she started working 32 hours a week instead of 20 hours, then she would be left with less than 3000 euros extra on an annual basis.
In other words: compared to working 60 percent more hours, there is less than 10 percent extra purchasing power. “If we want people to work more hours, it simply has to become more financially attractive,” says Professor of the Labor Market, Taxes and Pensions Bastiaan Starink. “People say to each other that you have nothing left of it after all. It shouldn’t be.”
