Nights, Saturdays and the Freezer: How Shift Bonuses Work in the Netherlands
26 October 2026
Almost every job advert in Dutch logistics and production mentions bonuses: +50% on Saturdays, +25% for nights, a freezer allowance. They can add a lot to your pay. They can also sound bigger than they are.
This is how they work, and how to tell what a bonus is really worth before you accept a job.
The three kinds of bonus
In the Netherlands these extras are called toeslagen (surcharges). You will meet three main types:
- Overtime (overwerktoeslag): extra pay for hours above your normal working time, often +25% or more.
- Shift bonus (ploegentoeslag): extra pay for working in a shift system, such as early, late and night shifts.
- Irregular hours (onregelmatigheidstoeslag): extra pay for evenings, nights, weekends and public holidays.
Some jobs also pay allowances for working conditions, such as working in cold rooms or freezers.
Real examples from jobs we recruit for
These are taken from the descriptions of jobs open with us in October 2026, so you can see how different they are:
- Parcel sorting in Breda: +37.5% shift bonus, +50% on Saturdays.
- Warehouse work in Tilburg: 110% for hours between 19:00 and 00:00, 125% between 00:00 and 07:00, 150% on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Overtime above 8 hours a day is paid at 125%.
- Stone production in Deest: 125% for overtime, 150% on Saturdays, 200% on Sundays and holidays.
- Order picking in Vaddinxveen: €1.11 extra for every hour worked in the freezer, at −15 to −23 °C.
Notice the two ways a bonus can be written. 150% means you earn one and a half times your hourly rate for that hour. +50% means the same thing.
The trap: a bonus only counts on the hours it applies to
This is the part most people miss. A bonus percentage tells you nothing until you know how many of your hours it applies to.
Say you earn €15.00 an hour and work 40 hours. A "+30% shift bonus" sounds like a 30% pay rise. But if only 8 of your 40 hours fall in the bonus window, the extra is:
8 hours × €15.00 × 30% = €36 a week
On a €600 week, that is 6% more, not 30%. Still worth having, but a very different number.
It works the other way too. If most of your hours fall on nights or weekends, the bonuses can make up a large share of your pay.
Who decides the bonuses?
Under the collective agreement for temporary workers, your pay, bonuses included, follows the rules of the company where you work: in Dutch, the inlenersbeloning. So your bonuses are those of the employer's own staff, not a separate, lower set of rules for temporary workers. A new law makes this stronger from 31 December 2026: your whole package of working conditions must then be equivalent to that of the employer's own staff.
That is why the same job title can pay different bonuses at two different companies.
Questions to ask before you say yes
- Which bonuses does this job pay, and at what percentage?
- Roughly how many of my hours will fall in those windows?
- Are the weekend and night shifts regular, or only when it is busy?
- Is there an allowance for cold or freezer work?
The honest answer to the second question matters more than the percentage. A recruiter who knows the job should be able to tell you what a typical week looks like, or say plainly that it varies.