Attractive labour market for commerce and industry

Highly qualified and multilingual labour force

Dutch South Limburg has an experienced, well educated, multilingual workforce (English, German and French).

Some secondary schools in the Maastricht region are among the top ten best schools in the Netherlands. Some of them also have international programmes suitable for non-Dutch speakers but there are also specific international schools, such as the United World College Maastricht (UWC). The region’s knowledge economy is supported by:

• Maastricht University
• Open University
• a number of international institutes (e.g. the Maastricht School of Management and the Europe Institute of Public Administration).

Maastricht University is in the top 100 in the higher education world reputation ranking (98th) and is one of the best ‘young’ universities in the world.

Legal minimum wage for all occupational groups

A legal minimum wage applies to all occupational groups in the Netherlands.

• Men and women aged between 23 and 65, who work for at least one third of normal working hours, are entitled to the legal minimum wage.
• For people aged between 15 and 22, the minimum wage is based on a specific percentage of the minimum wage for adults. This percentage ranges from 30% to 85%, depending on the age of the employees concerned.
• All employees, irrespective of age, are entitled to a legal minimum holiday payment of 8% of their gross annual salary.

Flexible contracts

Different options are available for employing staff.

There are three types of contract:

• a permanent contract
• a temporary employment contract or a contract with recruitment (senior posts)
• contract via an employment agency (junior and middle-level posts).