Salary, tax and pension
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) offers its employees attractive terms and conditions of employment. You can specify your own employment benefits via a specific model with several exchange options. For example, it is possible to choose for more vacation days, a bicycle or electric scooter to commute or exchange your vacation days for more money in December. Furthermore, we offer flexible working hours and there is plenty of room for personal development, opportunities for collective insurance and a good pension for a later phase in life.
Collective labour agreement
When you are employed by WUR , you are subject to the collective labour agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU) or Wageningen Research (CAO WR). Both almost similar agreements include agreements on terms and conditions of employment, personal development, leave, occupational health and safety, employment contracts and pensions.
Primary & secondary employment conditions
WUR offers a competitive salary, as specified in the collective labour agreements. Salaries are divided into different salary scales. If you perform well, you can progress upwards within your salary scale. At WUR , in addition to your base salary you will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3% (CAO WU) or 3% (CAO WR)
To provide flexibility, your full-time contract can be ‘converted’, after consultation with your supervisor, into a longer (plus) or shorter (minus) version.
For example, the normal full time contract within the University is 38 hours. In the ‘plus version’, you work a 40-hour working week, with two hours of additional leave you built up per week. Under the ‘minus version’ you work a 36-hour working week and built up 2 hours of leave less per week. Within the CAO WR this is also possible. The only difference is that the normal full time contract is 36 hours.The plus and minus versions of your contract are also applicable for part-time employees, after consultation with your supervisor.
If you are working at Wageningen University you are entitled to 232 hours (29 days) of leave if you are employed full-time. By using a variable working week, you can extend this to a maximum length of 328 hours, 41 days per year, with a full-time employment contract.
If you have a contract at one of the WR institutes you have 171 hours leave and with the extra hours you can extend this with 204 hours.
At WUR, pensions are arranged by the Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds (ABP). The ABP is the largest pension fund in the Netherlands, which provides pensions for the entire public sector, including WU and WR.
By signing up for our group insurance policies, you can benefit from a tax advantage and still enjoy excellent insurance coverage. For example, you can take out additional occupational disability insurance through Loyalis Schade NV. AON, an another insurance company, offers you and your family a 10% discount on the basic health insurance policy and a 15% discount on supplementary insurance packages.
Additional benefits of employment contract
WUR offers their employees, within certain limits, to choose for particular options within the fixed set of employment conditions (in collective labour agreement called: individual choices model). This means that you can determine certain elements within the package of employment conditions yourself. By using sources such as your salary, holiday leave hours or the end-of-year bonus, you can opt to purchase a bicycle at a discounted price, additional holiday leave, or extra salary.
Benefit of 30% tax ruling at WUR
The Netherlands has beneficial regulations for employees who are recruited or hired from abroad. One of the benefits is the 30%-rule: this means that 30% of the gross taxable salary can be reimbursed free of tax.
The reimbursement of 30% on your regular employment income (known as the 30% ruling) is a tax advantage for highly skilled migrants moving to the Netherlands for a specific employment role. The resulting tax free allowance is considered as compensation for expenses that a foreign employee experiences when working outside their home country. This means that, when you meet certain conditions, WUR can grant a tax free allowance equivalent to 30% of the gross salary subject to Dutch payroll tax.
Application of the 30% rule requires the permission of the Dutch Tax Administration: you, as an international employee, and WUR as your employer will have to file a joint request to the tax authorities to arrange this benefit. The Tax Administration will assess whether the employee has outstanding expertise, depending on their education, experience and income.
In order to qualify for the 30% ruling, certain conditions have to be met. Find more specific information about the requirements to find out if you are eligible.
