Few freelancers are top earners, most moonlight for extra cash

For 553 thousand of the more than 1.35 million freelancers in the Netherlands, the money they earn as a freelancer is a sideline income. The bulk of their income consists of wages, pension or benefit, according to figures Statistics Netherlands released on Wednesday. Most of the sideline-freelancers earned the bulk of their income from salary at a permanent job. Of the more than 6.1 million employees in 2014, 324 thousand also worked as a freelancer, earning an average of 4,500 euros extra. Just over 137 thousand of the nearly three million retirees in the Netherlands added an average of nearly 6 thousand euros to their pensions with freelancing income. And 53 thousand benefit recipients earned an extra 2 thousand euros as freelancers. More than 508 thousand freelancers only earned money as a freelancer in 2014. Their average income was 36 thousand euros gross. For 288 thousand freelancers their freelancing income was their main source of income, but they also have income from salary, pension or benefits. Freelancers with a pension as a side income received an average of 10 thousand euros from their pension, in addition to their average of nearly 32 thousand euros freelancing income. Additional income from wages averaged 7,500 euros and from benefits 2,300 euros.