What is the difference between simple and double holiday pay?
Simple holiday pay is your normal salary, which keeps being paid while you are on leave. Double holiday pay is an extra amount, paid once a year on top of it. Both are explained in our definition of holiday pay and double holiday pay.
Your right to paid leave and to holiday pay is built up during the year before, called the holiday service year. A full year in a five-day week gives 20 days of leave, as Acerta explains.
How is double holiday pay calculated for white-collar employees?
It equals 92% of your gross monthly salary for a full year worked. If you worked part of the previous year, you receive a pro rata of one twelfth per month worked, as Securex details. On a gross salary of €4,000, a full year gives €3,680 gross.
The 92% is split in two for social security, according to the ONSS instructions: 85% of it carries a special 13.07% contribution and the remaining part is exempt. It is then taxed at the rate for exceptional payments, which is why the net is much lower than the gross.
How is holiday pay calculated for blue-collar workers?
Differently. Blue-collar workers receive 15.38% of their gross pay from the previous year, first raised to 108%. That amount covers both the simple and the double holiday pay.
It is not paid by the employer but by the National Annual Holiday Office (ONVA/RJV) or a sector holiday fund, funded by employer contributions. This is one of the remaining practical differences between the two statuses.
When is holiday pay paid, and what if you change jobs?
White-collar employees receive double holiday pay when they take their main holiday. In practice most employers pay it to everyone in May or June.
If you leave a job, your employer pays you exit holiday pay instead, and your next employer pays you less the following year. That mechanism is explained in what holiday pay you get when you leave a job. If you are comparing a permanent role with freelance work, remember that a freelancer has no holiday pay: it has to come out of the day rate.
