The amount of these additional payments is set as a percentage of the employee’s average hourly wage. They are paid for each hour meeting the conditions below. The statutory amounts are always minimums, so you are free to pay your employee more. These payments form part of gross wages and are subject to tax and contributions.

Additional pay for Amount and conditions
Overtime For overtime for which no time off in lieu is provided, the employee receives wages + a 25% premium
Public holidays – not working When a public holiday falls on a working day, the employee is entitled to wages even if they do not work that day
Public holidays – working If an employee works on a public holiday, they receive wages for the day + a 100% premium (you should first offer paid time off on another day, however)
Weekend work An employee working at the weekend is entitled to wages + a 10% premium
Night work For work between 22:00 and 06:00, an employee is entitled to a 10% premium on top of their wages
Work in difficult conditions An employee working in difficult conditions is entitled to wages + a 10% premium
On-call duty If an employee is on call and is not called in to work, they receive 10% of average wages for each hour on call.

If the employee is called in, they receive their hourly wage.

What to watch out for

You also need to watch for situations where premiums combine. This typically happens when an employee works at the weekend and also overtime. In this case, the total premium is 10% + 25% = 35%.

For overtime, you can also agree in the employment contract that no additional overtime premium is paid up to 8 hours per week and no more than 150 hours per year. However, if overtime exceeds the annual limit, an Employer–Employee Agreement on Overtime Work must be drawn up. Overtime beyond these limits can be fairly complicated, so it is better to consult a capable payroll accountant. 😊

A new feature from October 2023 is that, alongside regular employees on employment contracts, agreement workers are also entitled to additional pay, which previously did not apply to them. You therefore need to ensure that the additional payments do not take them over the contribution threshold.

If payroll still feels like a foreign language to you, do not hesitate to get in touch. 😊