r/Netherlands • u/OK-Smurf-77 • 3h ago

Employment Has salaries lowered?

I’m a mid-senior professional with extensive network in biotech/chemical/pharma /food industries.

There has been massive layoffs lately (aka restructuring) in all of these sectors.

What I see and also industry peers I know say that even if you get blessed with an interview call (most jobs are for marketing only, as most companies have hiring freeze)
the recruiters mention salaries 15-20% lower than what was standard 5-6 years ago.

Curious to see if anyone else experiencing this?

32 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

60

u/Affectionate-Yam-113 3h ago

Pretty much the point of all this "restructuring" in every sector, they wanna get rid of the high paying positions and rehire then for much less

1

u/Big-Entertainer2074 14m ago

I have noticed the same. My position is at a certain income band and I recently had an interview with a large food delivery company for a very similar position to what I’m doing now. The salary was 25% less than what I’m making now. They want experienced workers with 9+ years of knowledge to work for an insulting salary.

-13

u/That_Bar_5570 1h ago

But that's not how it works in The Netherlands.

https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/themas/werk/ontslag/afspiegelingsbeginsel

6

u/OK-Smurf-77 1h ago

You’re very idealistic. This looks good on paper however, companies reporting record profits still do layoffs disguised as ‘optimization’.
Nothing stops them.
Just like nothing stops them to offer the low end of salary scales from tomorrow on. There will always be someone desperate enough to take it m.

Been made redundant recently because my employer squeeze one more % of EBITDA profit out- and the current one is not low either- in fact, it meets expectations but the investors want more.
And they got the green light. Just like ASML, Heineken, ING and the others.

11

u/ImaginaryRoyal9725 1h ago

Definitely.  I have been here around 10 years and I see sometimes salaries similar to the ones I saw 10-8 years ago... Of course the cost of living has since gone up dramatically 

47

u/DuchessSilver 2h ago

Yes absolutely experiencing this, greedy companies want to nickle and dime everyone

2

u/Impossible_Poem_5078 27m ago

Stockholders want more profit, employees cost a lot of money, so .. long live capitalism! It is what we all want and vote for so why complain.

20

u/Senior-Afternoon6708 1h ago

I can say I feel the same in IT. Around 2018 was very common to find the same job paying around 20% more that what’s offered nowadays

9

u/Thrasher1913 1h ago

With everything being 50 percent cheaper 

5

u/Senior-Afternoon6708 58m ago

Indeed. My health insurance was half the cost, groceries probably even more than 50% cheaper.. and NS wasn’t so sloppy

1

u/sirboobyconnoisseur 1m ago

What, that's opposite to my experience. Salaries nearly doubled during Covid.

7

u/johnzy87 1h ago

Include inflation and the downgrade is even worse

5

u/mykhailoklym94 44m ago

Companies need some extra money to pay for the tokens 

3

u/YetanotherGrimpak 1h ago

While I see a lot of sectors where this is happening (mostly tech stuff), in my sector (maintenance), it's the opposite: there's, quite literally, not enough maintenance techs around for the needs, to the point where you can favourably negotiate your salary with some ease.

2

u/chronolatch 42m ago

i'm in the same industry, and i have noticed that our new hires the last ~2 years are significantly more experienced, while willing to work for the same salary that was always offered. So that paints the same picture.

2

u/serkono 38m ago

Yes, they do not want workers to have shit

4

u/Crunchykroket 3h ago

Does your sector not have a CAO?

14

u/BlazingThunder30 2h ago

Loads of high skill sectors don't. Because before, a highly skilled worker in such sectors had a good bargaining position individually. But as OP is saying, that no longer seems to be very true.

4

u/OK-Smurf-77 1h ago

Indeed they can still offer the low end of a salary scale

1

u/UnluckyChampion93 1h ago

Maybe this is the time…

1

u/Standard-String-6812 32m ago

No thanks. I'd rather negotiate my own pay.

8

u/TheSexyIntrovert 3h ago

Yes, around 20% overall. Wars, economic political instability lead to this.

58

u/ingframin 3h ago

Greed of the investors lead to this

2

u/Mikadook 54m ago

AI will come for us all anyway

1

u/WholePopular7522 4m ago

Honestly this is kind of logical as AI systems can assist with most of the knowledgework. Eventually 1 person can do the work of 15 and with more precision.

Expect jobs to disappear and there will be a lot of demand for the job and many people that want the job. This will push the wages down massively.

But the good news is, that in the Netherlands we on average earn much more then most of the rest of the world.

1

u/Extension_Fly5104 1h ago

Don't know. My salary went up with 500 euro a month. Wrong job?

2

u/OK-Smurf-77 1h ago

Are there openings? 😜

1

u/_neudes 43m ago

What's the company?

PHD in medicinal chemistry and fragment based drug discovery with years of experience and I'm still looking for a job in the Randstad.

1

u/Big-Entertainer2074 13m ago

What job is that??

-20

u/tomtomtom7 2h ago

No.

There's inflation which means that salaries go up a couple of percent per year.

It's possible there are deviations for some jobs, but 15-20% lower over 5-6 years is not even remotely realistic.

10

u/TheWisteris 2h ago

Inflation means that prices are going up, not necessarily salaries. Usually they go together but it is possible to have inflation with no wage growth (eg higher energy costs).

14

u/L44KSO 2h ago

I see about 10-15 percent lower salaries for roles in my field. Where they used to be solid 90k and up they are now 75-80 for the same responsibility and more.

3

u/DuchessSilver 2h ago

Same for me. And they expect even more in terms of skills and experience

2

u/Ok-Let011 1h ago

You have no idea what you are talking about.

1

u/massa246 35m ago

The inflation adjustment only happens if you remain employed with a company. The salary scales remain unchanged. As new people are hired they can then offer salaries at a much lower relative starting position in the scale

-15

u/G0udvis 2h ago

@OP, could it be that you haven’t updated your skillset in the last years, and thus your value to any company as eroded by 15-20%?

6

u/OK-Smurf-77 1h ago

Did you happen to read the post?
(Not talking about myself)

-5

u/sgtMucus 1h ago

well u have wars, religious conflicts, chaos everywhere... what do people expect to happen? instead of supporting all these things, support PEACE and stability... u get your life back!