Hourly wage

Not every employer agrees upon a fixed amount per period with his employees. There are sectors, for instance construction or agriculture, where it is quite customary to agree upon an amount per hour. An hourly wage is also often agreed upon with casual staff, because the number of hours that they work in a certain period generally is different from the previous and next periods.

The hourly wage is determined using a special calculation. This is necessary because not every month has the same number of workable days. A workable day is any day that falls outside a weekend; a holiday (a day when the business is closed) that is not a weekend day, is also considered a workable day. The calendar shows that January of a certain year has, for example, 22 workable days (including New Year's Day), February has 20 days and March has 22 days. To accommodate these differences, the hourly wage is calculated by first determining the annual wage, then calculating a weekly wage based on the annual wage, and dividing the weekly wage by the number of hours per week.

Example:

An employee earns € 3,000 per month. For someone who is paid per month, the annual wage is € 36,000. The weekly wage is €36,000 divided by 52 = €692.31. This amount is divided by the number of timetable hours (40), resulting in an hourly wage of €17.31. This hourly wage is used, for example to calculate the wage for overtime hours.