Many NL workers willing to take salary cut to work at sustainable company

A growing group of Netherlands residents would rather work at a climate-conscious organization than a company with no sustainability goals. And a substantial number of them are prepared to take significant salary cuts for a more sustainable job, Nederlands Dagblad reported based on a study by labor economists Paul de Beer and Wieteke Conen.

The economists looked into what a sustainable economy is worth to Netherlands residents, and it turns out it's a lot. Over two-thirds of Netherlands residents would rather have a climate-conscious job, like working for a solar panel company or heat pump developer, or even for a company that’s working towards becoming CO2-neutral, they found.

And Netherlands residents are also willing to put their money where their mouth is, the researchers noted. “We often think that employees will drop out as soon as it starts costing money,” De Beer, a professor at the University of Amsterdam, told the newspaper. Many are willing to take a pay cut if they can get a job at a more sustainable company. “Twenty percent less salary is acceptable to some.”

A recent study by the temporary employment agency Randstad also found that salary is no longer the deciding factor for many workers in the Netherlands. About 60 percent of Dutch workers would turn down a job if it negatively impacts their work-life balance, ranking their mental health and happiness as more important than their career goals.