Data from the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) has revealed that the salaries of 130.000 people in the Netherlands fell as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. 

Over 100.000 workers saw their income fall by at least 10 percent

The CPB notes that every year, people across the Netherlands suffer from stagnating or falling wages, but has highlighted the fact that in 2020, the number of workers who faced “a lagging growth in labour income” was 175.000 higher than normal. 

Furthermore, while most incomes remained stable or increased slightly in 2020, around 130.00 people with jobs in the Netherlands saw their salaries fall by at least 10 percent between 2019 and 2020 as a result of the pandemic and so-called coronavirus crisis.  

Flex workers and self-employed in hospitality were hit the hardest

Unsurprisingly, CPB found that flexible workers and self-employed people suffered the biggest losses, and the agency notes that these groups were not only “more at risk of loss of income,” but they also “had fewer financial buffers to absorb the consequences.” Entrepreneurs and workers in the hospitality sector were hit the hardest. 

“The biggest blow came in the first half of 2020, a rapid recovery during the second half of that year has prevented worse,” the CPB explains, pointing out that many workers who lost their jobs at the start of the pandemic had found (other) work by the end of the year.