This page accounts for the transition payment calculator of the Dutch Law Institute. You can read which statutory rules the calculator applies, how it determines the length of service and the monthly wage, which assumptions it makes, where its limits lie and how the results are tested. At the end you will find public test cases with their results, calculated with the same calculation engine as the calculator.
A. What the calculator calculates, and what it does not
The calculator calculates the statutory transition payment (transitievergoeding) under Article 7:673 of the Dutch Civil Code: the length of the employment, the monthly wage and the amount, with the statutory cap. If you wish, it also calculates the statutory interest on late payment (Article 7:686a(1) of the Dutch Civil Code) and the last date for an application to the cantonal court (paragraph 4).
It does not calculate: fair compensation (billijke vergoeding), a higher payment under a settlement agreement or social plan, the deduction of costs under Article 7:673(6) of the Dutch Civil Code, or wage tax. The optional entitlement check gives an indication of whether the payment is due, but not a judgment.
B. Legal basis
- Article 7:673 of the Dutch Civil Code: entitlement (paragraph 1), amount and cap (paragraphs 2 and 3), length and aggregation (paragraph 4), deduction of an earlier payment (paragraph 5), exceptions (paragraphs 7 and 8).
- Articles 7:673b and 7:673c of the Dutch Civil Code: collective agreement (cao) provision for dismissal for economic reasons (7:673b); no transition payment if the employer is bankrupt, has been granted a suspension of payments or is subject to debt restructuring (7:673c(1)). Both in the entitlement check only.
- Besluit loonbegrip vergoeding aanzegtermijn en transitievergoeding (Decree on the wage concept for the notice compensation and the transition payment), articles 2 to 4: the monthly wage.
- Regeling looncomponenten en arbeidsduur (Regulation on wage components and working hours), articles 2 to 5: working hours, absence and designated wage components.
- Article XXII(8) of the Wet werk en zekerheid (Work and Security Act): transitional law for contracts that ended before 1 July 2015.
- Article 7:686a of the Dutch Civil Code and the Algemene termijnenwet (General Time Limits Act): start of interest and limitation period, with the method of calculation of the Supreme Court 5 February 2021, ECLI:NL:HR:2021:188.
C. Length of service
- Full years. The length runs from the first to the last day of employment inclusive; the last day counts. For each full year, the payment is one third of a monthly wage.
- Remaining period. For the part after the full years, the calculator uses the gross salary actually owed over that period: (salary over the remaining part / monthly salary) × (monthly wage / 36). If the user does not enter that salary, the calculator estimates it on the basis of calendar days and labels the result as provisional. If the remaining part consists of whole months, this is 1/36 of a monthly wage per month.
- Very short contracts. With exactly one contract of less than one month, the total wage over that contract is the monthly wage (article 4 Besluit loonbegrip).
- Earlier contracts. For each contract, the calculator assesses whether it counts: intervals of no more than six months are aggregated, with a longer interval that contract and all earlier ones drop out; a contract that the employee ended does not count (Supreme Court 28 November 2025, ECLI:NL:HR:2025:1808); for contracts that ended before 1 July 2015 the transitional law applies.
- Successive employership. If the user indicates that an earlier employer is a possible successor or unknown, the period counts subject to reservation: the result is provisional and the calculator also shows the result without that period. Whether succession is established can only be decided by a legal assessment.
- Before the 18th birthday. Months in which the employee, before their 18th birthday, worked on average no more than twelve hours a week do not count (Article 7:673(4)(a) of the Dutch Civil Code), if the user indicates this.
- Earlier payment. A transition payment owed earlier is deducted after the cap is applied, never below zero (paragraph 5).
D. The monthly wage
The monthly wage is the sum of the base wage (fixed salary per month, per four weeks times 13/12, per week times 52/12, or hourly wage times the working hours) and the wage components: holiday allowance and a fixed year-end payment (twelve months, divided by 12), overtime pay and shift allowance (twelve months, divided by 12), and bonuses, profit shares and variable year-end payments (three calendar years before the year of the end, divided by 36 or pro rata). With varying working hours, piece wages or commission, the extended calculation uses the average over twelve monthly blocks, excluding periods of leave, strike or illness, with replacement months under article 2 of the Regulation. A lease car, travel expenses and expense allowances do not count. Each component is rounded to the cent; the calculator then works with the rounded monthly wage. Explanation per component: which wage components count.
E. The statutory cap
The payment is not higher than the cap for the year in which the employment ends, or one annual wage (twelve times the monthly wage) if that is higher (Article 7:673(2) of the Dutch Civil Code). The calculator contains the caps for 2020 to 2026, checked against the historical statutory texts; for 2026 the cap is €102,000. If the employment ends in a year whose cap has not yet been included, the calculator does not apply the cap of an earlier year and says so. The cap is updated each year as of 1 January as soon as the new amount has been published.
F. Assumptions
The calculator works with what the user enters and does not check those facts: the dates, the salary and the wage components, who ended an earlier contract, whether an earlier employer is a successor, and the working hours before the 18th birthday. Where the law requires a fact the calculator does not know, such as the salary over the remaining period, it makes an estimate and marks the result as provisional.
G. Limits
The result is not a determination of an entitlement. Whether the transition payment is due depends on the initiative for the end of employment, the exceptions in Article 7:673(7) of the Dutch Civil Code, any collective agreement provision (Article 7:673b of the Dutch Civil Code) and the facts of the case. With successive employership, unclear wage arrangements, discretionary bonuses or a dispute about the end date, a legal assessment is needed. The specifics for illness, fixed-term contracts and succession are set out in transition payment and illness, fixed-term contracts and successive employers.
H. Checks and maintenance
- The calculation rules run on the Dutch Law Institute's server; the form in the browser does not calculate itself.
- As of 1 January each year, the new cap and the year-dependent texts are updated following a fixed procedure; the interest rates for the interest extension are updated every six months.
- Every substantive change is reviewed by Eva Jongepier and Jan Willem de Groot before publication; the review date on the calculator page is the date of the most recent review.
- After each publication, the files on the server are compared with the tested version and the calculator is tested again in all five languages, including the exports.
I. Test methodology
The calculation engine has automated test suites with a total of 413 checks, covering the basic calculation, the entitlement check, the forms of pay, the periods and the rules before the 18th birthday. The expected results were derived by hand from the law in advance, not from the code. In addition, parity tests compare thousands of random cases between the calculation in the browser and on the server, and a browser test in five languages checks the form, the result and the exports. With every change, all tests must pass.
The public test cases below come from those test suites. The amounts are recalculated with the calculation engine each time this page is published; they are not maintained by hand.
| No. | Situation | Duration | Monthly wage | Transition payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Six full years of service, €4,500 per month, 8% holiday allowance | 6 years | €4,860.00 | €9,720.00 |
| 02 | 7 years and 4 months, €4,000, 13th month and bonuses over three calendar years (€12,000, €0, €12,000) | 7 years and 4 months | €5,320.00 | €13,004.44 |
| 03 | 9 years and 5 days, €3,000 per month, €800 salary over the remaining 5 days | 9 years and 5 days | €3,000.00 | €9,022.22 |
| 04 | Fixed-term contract of just over two months, €3,000 per month, €6,480 salary over the period | 2 months and 6 days | €3,000.00 | €180.00 |
| 05 | Ten-day contract, €1,000 wage in total (article 4 Besluit loonbegrip) | 10 days | €1,000.00 | €27.78 |
| 06 | Two contracts with an interval of exactly six months: aggregated | 5 years | €3,000.00 | €5,000.00 |
| 07 | Two contracts with an interval of six months and one day: the first contract does not count | 4 years | €3,000.00 | €4,000.00 |
| 08 | Three contracts; interval of ten months after the first, of three months after the second | 6 years and 6 months | €3,888.00 | €8,424.00 |
| 09 | Earlier contract ended by the employee: does not count (HR 2025:1808) | 6 years | €3,000.00 | €6,000.00 |
| 10 | Earlier contract with a possible successor employer: provisional, €6,000 without that period | 8 years | €3,000.00 | €8,000.00 (provisional) |
| 11 | Two aggregated contracts, earlier transition payment of €1,000 is deducted | 5 years | €3,000.00 | €4,000.00 |
| 12 | On-call contract, €16 per hour, 1,248 hours in twelve months | 4 years | €1,797.12 | €2,396.16 |
| 13 | Min-max contract with a minimum of 24 hours a week, an average of 90 hours a month worked | 5 years | €1,560.00 | €2,600.00 |
| 14 | Salary of €900 per week (times 52/12), 8% holiday allowance | 6 years | €4,212.00 | €8,424.00 |
| 15 | Work before the 18th birthday averaging no more than twelve hours a week: those months do not count | 4 years | €2,000.00 | €2,666.67 |
| 16 | Long employment: 2026 cap of €102,000 | 56 years and 6 months | €6,480.00 | €102,000.00 |
| 17 | Annual salary above €102,000: the cap is one annual wage | 56 years and 6 months | €10,800.00 | €129,600.00 |
J. Change log
- 21 May 2026: calculation of statutory interest on late payment added.
- 1-2 October 2026: corrections to the wage concept (holiday allowance as a percentage of salary, bonuses divided by 36 including years without a bonus, no lease car); extended explanation and calculation examples.
- 7-8 October 2026: remaining period based on the salary actually owed, contracts shorter than one month, multiple contracts, entitlement check, extended calculation for varying hours and commission, assessment per earlier contract (interval, successor, termination by the employee).
- 9-11 October 2026: periods before the 18th birthday, salary per four weeks, week or hour; date picker and exports self-hosted.
- 12-13 October 2026: extended explanation, calculation examples and frequently asked questions; check question for a last day on the first of the month.
Key legal sources
- Article 7:673 of the Dutch Civil Code
- Besluit loonbegrip vergoeding aanzegtermijn en transitievergoeding
- Regeling looncomponenten en arbeidsduur
- Article 7:686a of the Dutch Civil Code and Algemene termijnenwet
- Supreme Court 5 February 2021, ECLI:NL:HR:2021:188; Supreme Court 28 November 2025, ECLI:NL:HR:2025:1808