In this section, we outline the key aspects of the salary and payment for PhD candidates. It is important to note that, in the Netherlands, not all PhD candidates work on their thesis under the same conditions. Below, you can find detailed information about this according to the type of contract or agreement that applies. Do you not know (yet) which contract applies in your case? Go to this page to find out!
Employed PhD candidate at a university or research institute
Employee PhD candidates are subject to the P-scale (short for promovendi), which includes four salary grades. The salary tables are different for universities and research institutes:
At the start of your employment contract, you are placed in grade P0 for a period of 12 months. At the end of this period, you will be placed in salary grade P1.
If your personal contract does not state that salary increases are related to an annual assessment, the increase will take place automatically. However, if this is part of your personal contract and you did not have an annual assessment during the 15 months after the last periodic salary increase, the next increase takes effect automatically while upholding the original incremental date. Please consult the CLA for details on these dates and scales.
End-of-year bonus
You are entitled to a structural end-of-year bonus expressed as 8.3% of the salary received during the calendar year. The minimum amount of the end-of-year bonus is €2,250 gross. When you work part-time, or only a part of the year, the minimum is adjusted pro rata.
Holiday allowance
You are entitled to a holiday allowance amounting to 8% of your total yearly salary. The allowance is paid once every twelve months, generally in the month of May. Sometimes, local regulation may stipulate that you have the option to receive the holiday allowance monthly. In case of dismissal, payment is made over the period between the end of the last period for which holiday allowance was paid out and the date of your dismissal.
Do you want to know more? Contact Lex Mandos for advice.
Lex Mandos
Arbeidsomstandigheden – universiteiten
PhD candidate employed at a UMC
In UMCs there are different types of contracts for PhD candidates. Medical doctors (who completed bachelor and master in Medicine) are often hired as physician researchers and are classified in ‘schaal’ 10, ‘trede’ 2. The salary table you can find the salary table in Attachment B of the CLA. It is important to know that work experience as a medical doctor counts towards classification in which ‘trede’ you will start. PhD candidates employed in UMCs that are not medical doctors, are often hired as onderzoekers in opleiding (oio’s). There is a separate oio salary table in Attachment D of the CLA.
At the start of your employment contract, you are placed in the first grade for a period of 12 months. At the end of this period, you will be placed one salary grade higher.
If your personal contract does not state if salary increases are related to an annual assessment, it will take place automatically. However, if it is part of your personal contract and you did not have an annual assessment fifteen months after the last periodic salary increase, and you cannot be charged for this, the next increase takes effect automatically while upholding the original incremental date.
End-of-year bonus
You are entitled to a structural end-of-year bonus expressed as 8.3% of the salary received during the calendar year. The minimum amount of the end-of-year bonus is €2,250 gross. When you work part-time, or only a part of the year, the minimum is adjusted pro rata.
Holiday allowance
You are entitled to a holiday allowance amounting to 8% of your total yearly salary. The allowance is paid once every twelve months, generally in the month of May. Sometimes, local regulation may stipulate that you have the option to receive the holiday allowance monthly. In case of dismissal, payment is made over the period between the end of the last period for which holiday allowance was paid out and the date of your dismissal.
Do you want to know more? Contact Martine van der Linde for advice.
Martine van der Linde
Arbeidsomstandigheden – ziekenhuizen
hospitals@hetpnn.nl
Non-employed PhD candidate
Non-employed PhD candidates do not receive a salary for working on their dissertation, and their source of income varies depending on the specific situation (savings, part-time work, scholarship, etc.).
For scholarship PhD candidates, the amount of their scholarship is expected to be the minimum established by the immigration authorities (IND). You can check more information on their website. Some universities have stopped admitting PhD candidates with a scholarship that does not meet the minimum requirements, while few others offer so-called ‘top-up’ payments to supplement the necessary amount. However, this is handled locally, so for more information, please contact your institution.
PNN’s position is that doing a PhD is work and we advocate that all PhD candidates receive an appropriate salary and are guaranteed sustainable conditions to do their work. Likewise, we are very concerned about the reports that show that PhD candidates increasingly pay to conduct their own research and continue to monitor the situation closely to address these inequalities.
Do you want to know more? Contact Teebah Abu-Zahra for advice.
Teebah Abu-Zahra
Labor conditions - external, international and scholarship PhD candidates
