Higher wages increased Dutch households' disposable income last year

Households in the Netherlands saw their spending power increase in 2025, largely driven by wage growth under collective labor deals, Statistics Netherlands said. Meanwhile, mortgage debt kept climbing.

In 2025, real disposable income in the Netherlands rose by 2.7 percent compared with the previous year, reflecting earnings adjusted for inflation. Both employees and self-employed workers saw higher incomes.

Employee compensation increased by 6.4 percent, supported by a 1.5 percent rise in job numbers and a 5 percent jump in collective labor agreement wages. Income for the self-employed edged up by 0.8 percent.

Total benefits paid out rose by 5.8 percent, largely because many payments are tied to the minimum wage, which rose 5.6 percent over the year. The rise was also driven by more people receiving pensions and higher pension payments. At the same time, households paid 3.9 percent more in taxes and social contributions.

In 2025, mortgage debt in the Netherlands climbed by 48.1 billion euros to a total of 935.9 billion euros, marking a faster increase than the previous year. Rising house prices and higher home sales contributed to the growth. Since the economy expanded more slowly than debt, mortgage debt relative to GDP edged up from 79.2 percent in 2024 to 79.4 percent.

Household savings continued to grow, reaching more than 540 billion euros in deposits at domestic and foreign banks by the end of 2025, an 8.1 percent increase from the previous year. The last time savings rose at a faster pace was in 2003, when they increased by 9.4 percent.