Dutch Government to Make Internship Pay Mandatory, but Without a Minimum Amount
Only around four in ten vocational students on placements currently get paid. The government's plan aims to change that, but the amount would still be up to the internship provider.
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The Dutch government plans to make it compulsory for students on work placements to receive an allowance, but it will not set a minimum amount in law, according to the newspaper AD. Students would gain a legal right to be paid for an internship, while the amount would still be left to the organisation offering the placement.
A right to pay, but no set amount
Internships (in Dutch, stages) are a required part of many courses in vocational education (mbo), higher professional education (hbo) and at research universities (wo), often lasting several months. At present, employers are not legally required to pay interns anything beyond covering expenses such as travel or the cost of a certificate of good conduct. Whether a student is paid, and how much, depends largely on the sector and on any collective labour agreement (in Dutch, a CAO) that applies.
The planned law would change the first part of that, by giving every student a right to an allowance. It would not, however, set a minimum sum. That decision, according to the reporting, reflects a deliberate choice to require payment while leaving the level to employers.
Why so many students go unpaid
The gap the government wants to close is wide. Recent figures showed that only around 42 percent of vocational students with a placement received an allowance, compared with about 75 percent of students in higher professional education. At research universities, students were paid in around two-thirds of compulsory internships. Education Minister Rianne Letschert has said she was shocked that whether a student gets paid depends so heavily on the sector they end up in.
Where students are paid, the amounts vary widely. Typical allowances range from a few hundred euros a month upwards, with government bodies now paying interns around 800 euros a month and some large companies offering 600 euros or more, while other placements pay little or nothing.
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The argument for a minimum
Student organisations have welcomed the move to make payment compulsory, but many are disappointed that no minimum is being set. They argue that without a floor, employers could meet the new obligation while paying very little. One student representative warned that, without a minimum, employers could get away with paying interns as little as 50 euros a month, which would do little to ease the financial pressure on students who have less time for a part-time job during a placement.
The argument against
Employers’ organisations have pushed back against a legal minimum. They fear that forcing every internship provider to pay a set amount could lead to fewer placements, particularly at smaller companies that cannot easily absorb the cost. There is also a concern that a minimum could have the opposite of the intended effect, with some employers lowering their payments to exactly the required level when they might previously have paid more. Officials who examined the options noted that the impact on the number of available placements is hard to predict.
What happens next
The plan is not yet law. A bill still has to go to the two houses of parliament, the Tweede Kamer and the Eerste Kamer, where it will be debated and could be amended, including on the question of whether a minimum should be added after all. Because of that process, it could take until around 2028 before a mandatory allowance actually takes effect.
In the meantime, the practical situation for students is unchanged: there is still no legal right to an allowance, though internship providers must already reimburse the costs a student incurs, and a growing number of collective agreements now include arrangements on internship pay.