Over 20% of Dutch unhappy with salary; cops, firefighters most dissatisfied

More than two out of ten employees in the Netherlands say they are unhappy with their job’s salary, reports the Statistics Netherlands (CBS) based on data collected in the fourth quarter of 2015. However, the percentages strongly vary between sectors. Almost four out of ten persons employed by government institutions said they were dissatisfied with their income.

On average, police officers and firefighters are most dissatisfied with their salary, as 37% survey respondents replied they perceive their pay to be too low considering the duties they perform. This group is followed by car, cab and truck drivers, who reported 35% dissatisfaction rates. In third place are janitors and team leaders in the cleaning sector. About 33,6% of them stated they are disappointed with their salary.

Other sectors were also unhappy about their income, especially kitchen crews, retail staff, cleaners, call center employees and receptionists. Almost all Dutch employees named salary as an important labor condition.

Still, the same CBS research reports that most strikes in 2016 were held by industrial workers, who held labour actions totalling 9,000 working days. This is almost half of all strike days in the Netherlands last year. In total, 11,000 employees went on strike 25 times. In 2015 there were 27 strike incidents. Overall, 19,200 working days were halted by strikes last year, more than 60% less than in 2015 where 47,000 days were lost.

This may partly be due to several actions undertaken by police officers in 2015, which lasted several months. In December 2015, they reached a new collective employment agreement.