In this article
You know exactly what a cook, a waiter or a flexi-worker costs in gross wage, employer contributions and holiday pay. The one number that never shows up as its own line on a payslip is the pension you owe on top as an employer — and that number isn't European. It's Dutch, French, Italian, Irish, Polish or German, and it runs from literally nothing to almost a tenth of gross pay.
This isn't an article about the year-end bonus (already covered on this site) or about how a flexi-job works (also already covered). This is the number that sits between the two, and one almost no restaurant owner has ever actually looked up: what an employer legally or contractually owes toward a hospitality worker's pension, and how wildly that figure changes the moment you look across a border.
That difference isn't small. In the Netherlands, a hospitality employer has paid a mandatory sector premium of 17.14% of pensionable salary since 1 January 2026, split evenly between employer and employee — so 8.57% on top of every gross wage, for every worker in the sector. In Germany, an employer pays nothing unless a worker formally asks for it. Between those two extremes sits a whole range of countries, each with its own rate, its own threshold and its own exclusions.
Three of these schemes are also brand new. The Netherlands' sector-wide Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering switched to a completely new premium structure on 1 January 2026. Ireland got its first-ever mandatory workplace pension on that same day, My Future Fund. And Poland's PPK scheme is mid a wave of mass opt-outs — participation swung between just 51.9% and a record 60.3% in early 2026, depending on which month you measure.
Seven numbers, in this order: what the Netherlands' hospitality sector pays under the new scheme; what France requires from the very first euro of pay, with no threshold at all; what Italy's TFR is and why it's funded entirely by the employer; why Belgium's PC302 scheme excludes exactly the staff who cover most shifts; what Ireland's brand-new My Future Fund costs today, and in ten years' time; how many Polish workers actually stay enrolled in PPK; and why a German employer pays nothing until someone specifically asks.
Why almost nobody has ever looked this up
Pension sounds like something for large companies with an HR department, not an eight-person restaurant. A clause about a "second pillar" reads as something for permanent, full-time contracts — and most hospitality businesses run mainly on flexi-workers, students and part-timers, so the instinct is that it doesn't apply.
The problem also stays invisible unless someone specifically asks. A sector fund usually collects its premium automatically through payroll or social contributions, with no separate line ever appearing that says "17.14%" — it's buried inside the overall payroll cost. It only surfaces once you compare that payroll cost across countries, or once a new scheme (like the Netherlands' switch on 1 January 2026, or Ireland's brand-new obligation) suddenly adds a new line to the payslip.
The rest of this article adds up what most owners have never looked up: the exact percentage per country, who counts and who explicitly doesn't — and the number that surprises people most: that the sector that runs most heavily on flexi-jobs pays more than anywhere else in the Netherlands, while in Belgium it excludes exactly the people covering most of the hours.
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Every number below comes from a published source — a sector fund, a government body, or an official statute — never a guess from this site. This is not tax or legal advice: exact rates, thresholds and procedures differ by country and change over time, so always check the current rules of the country where your staff are employed.
1. The Netherlands: 8.57% employer share, mandatory for the whole sector
The Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering switched to a completely new premium structure on 1 January 2026: 17.14% of pensionable salary (16.80% old-age pension plus 0.34% survivor's pension), split evenly between employer and employee. That means 8.57% on top of every gross wage as the employer share — mandatory, for nearly every worker in the Dutch hospitality and catering sector, regardless of the size of the business.
The switch is more than a rate adjustment: the fund moved from a scheme with a fixed annual accrual percentage to a premium scheme where the contribution builds a personal pension pot that grows through investment returns. For the employer, little changes in practice about the payroll cost — the amount paid over each month remains, in essence, the same percentage.
This is the highest figure in this article, and it's not an exception for large chains: every hospitality business in the Netherlands, from a sole trader to a chain, pays the same 8.57%. Compare that with number 4 below — the exact same sector, in a neighbouring country, with a completely different story for exactly the workers who cover most of the shifts.
Each from a separate published source — together the reason this isn't a detail you sort out along the way.
Sources: Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering (2026 premium scheme); Belgian joint committee 302 (sectoral pension plan, flexi-job exclusion); Irish government — My Future Fund / Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Scheme; Italian Civil Code Art. 2120 (TFR). Rules and amounts change — always check the current legislation of the country where your staff are employed.
2. France: from the very first euro, no threshold and no minimum hours
France's AGIRC-ARRCO complementary pension scheme is mandatory for every private-sector employee, from the very first euro worked — no minimum wage, no minimum hours, no age threshold. The 2026 rate is 7.87% on salary up to €4,005 per month (Tranche 1), of which the employer pays 60% — around 4.72% on top of gross pay — with the employee covering the remaining 40%.
That "from the first euro" principle is exactly what sets AGIRC-ARRCO apart from most other countries in this article: where Ireland and Poland (numbers 5 and 6) only become mandatory above an earnings or age threshold, the French contribution applies to every part-time extra shift, every weekend job, every student on a contract of a few hours a week.
For a French restaurant that leans on part-time and seasonal staff, this means the pension contribution can never be planned away by using short contracts — unlike schemes elsewhere that leave small or temporary contracts out entirely.
3. Italy: 6.91% TFR, funded entirely by the employer
Italy doesn't run a classic pension premium — it runs the Trattamento di Fine Rapporto (TFR), a mandatory savings pot equal to 6.91% of gross annual pay that the employer sets aside every year for every employee, regardless of contract type. Unlike the Netherlands or France, the employee contributes nothing here: the full 6.91% is funded by the business itself.
The TFR is paid out at the end of employment, or — if the employee chooses — transferred into a complementary pension fund (previdenza complementare). The accrued amount is revalued each year according to the Italian inflation index (ISTAT), so it isn't dead capital sitting still.
For an Italian hospitality business, this is the number never to forget in a quote or cost projection: 6.91% doesn't sit inside gross pay itself — it always comes on top, year after year, for everyone on the payroll, with no exemption for short or part-time contracts.
4. Belgium: 0% for the shift you'll actually staff tomorrow
Belgium's joint committee 302 (hospitality) does have a supplementary sectoral pension — a second pillar — but with an exclusion that carries real weight: flexi-workers, students, casual staff and temp workers have no right to the sectoral pension contribution. Only staff on a permanent or regular contract build up that second-pillar pension.
This is no edge case — it's exactly how Belgian hospitality runs today. Flexi-workers instead receive a wage top-up (the so-called "flexi pension supplement") on top of their hourly rate, but that doesn't build pension capital the way the sector premium does for permanent staff. For a business running mostly on flexi-workers, students and casual staff — and Belgian hospitality runs on a great many of them — this means the vast majority of hours worked legally build up no supplementary pension at all.
Set that beside number 1 above: the exact same sector, in neighbouring Netherlands, pays 8.57% for everyone. In Belgium, the answer for most of the workforce is: nothing — unless you deliberately choose permanent contracts over flexi-jobs.
The employer share as a percentage of gross pay, today, side by side.
Percentages are the employer share of gross pay (or, for Italy, the full TFR cost). A rate has no currency — the percentage doesn't change with the reader's country, only the amount it produces does.
5. Ireland: 1.5% today, building toward 6% by 2035
Ireland got its first-ever mandatory workplace pension on 1 January 2026: My Future Fund. Every worker aged 23 to 60 earning more than €20,000 a year (combined across all employers) who has no existing workplace pension is automatically enrolled — unless they specifically opt out.
The starting contribution is deliberately low: for the first three years (2026–2028), the employer pays 1.5%, the employee 1.5%, and the government tops up 0.5% — 3.5% total. Every three years, that rises by 1.5 percentage points per party, reaching 6% employer, 6% employee and 2% government by 2035 — 14% total.
For an Irish hospitality business budgeting on 1.5% today, this is the figure to put in the multi-year plan now: within nine years, the same payroll carries four times the pension cost, with no new law needing to pass — it's already fixed in the schedule.
6. Poland: 1.5% mandatory — for whoever hasn't opted out
Poland's PPK scheme (Pracownicze Plany Kapitałowe) requires every employer to contribute 1.5% of gross pay, matched by a default employee contribution of 2% (reducible to 0.5% for anyone earning less than 1.2 times the minimum wage). The state adds a one-off top-up of PLN 250 and an annual PLN 240, on condition the minimum contributions have been paid.
The catch sits in participation, not in the rate: everyone is automatically enrolled, but opting out is possible at any time. In early 2026, actual participation swung between just 51.9% and a record 60.3% depending on the measurement date — with clearly lower participation in the private sector than at large companies. On top of that, the law forces a full re-enrolment round every four years for everyone who previously opted out.
For a Polish hospitality business, this means double the admin: not just calculating and paying your own 1.5%, but also re-registering every past opt-out every four years — a cycle that repeats regardless of how many staff actually stay enrolled in between.
7. Germany: 0%, unless someone specifically asks
Germany has no auto-enrolment and no mandatory employer contribution. A worker does have the legal right to request Entgeltumwandlung — converting part of gross pay into a pension contribution instead of taking it as wage. The moment an employee asks for it, the employer must add a 15% top-up on top of the converted contribution, provided the employer itself saves social-security contributions through the conversion.
The result: as long as nobody specifically requests it, a German hospitality business pays a structural 0% toward supplementary pension — a completely different starting point from the Netherlands, France, or even Ireland, where the legislator arranges the enrolment itself.
For a German owner, this is exactly the reverse risk from the other six numbers: not "how much do I owe", but "am I certain nobody on my team has ever asked for Entgeltumwandlung, and if they have, has the mandatory 15% top-up actually been processed correctly?" — a question that usually only surfaces during a payroll audit.
What would this team actually cost you?
Every one of the seven numbers above is a percentage — it only becomes a concrete figure once you put it against your own payroll. This calculator does that translation: pick a country, enter your staff count and average gross salary, and see instantly what the employer contribution would be there.
Enter your own figures. The tool recalculates live, and automatically weighs your result against what the same team would cost at the Dutch sector rate — the ceiling in this article.
Run your own team through it
Enter your own figures — the rest does the maths.
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This is a thinking exercise with your own numbers, not an accounting guarantee or legal advice. Every country has its own thresholds, caps and exclusions that this tool simplifies — check the exact scheme of the country where your staff are employed for the precise calculation.
The tool calculates with one fixed rate per country — in reality, thresholds (like Ireland's €20,000), age limits, or contract type (like Belgium's exclusion of flexi-jobs) can make the figure completely different for part of your team than for the rest.
What the tool doesn't measure: the administrative load some schemes add on top of the percentage — like Poland's mandatory four-year re-enrolment round, or Germany's requirement to correctly calculate the 15% top-up the moment one employee requests Entgeltumwandlung.
How to check this before your next payroll review
Three steps, in the order they should happen — before your next payroll review, not after.
1. Ask your own sector fund or payroll provider for the exact rate
- Ask your payroll provider or accountant explicitly which percentage for supplementary pension is already built into your payroll cost today — that figure is rarely shown as its own line.
- Check with your sector fund (like PC302 in Belgium or Pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering in the Netherlands) which contract types do and don't count.
- Ask specifically about recent changes — like the Dutch switch on 1 January 2026 — that may have changed your payroll cost without you noticing.
2. Put the percentage in your own multi-year budget
- For schemes with a fixed escalation schedule (like Ireland's rise to 2035), put the future percentages in your budget now — the increase is already legally fixed.
- Run the calculator above with your own staffing and compare the result to what you're actually paying today.
- If you use flexi-jobs or short-term contracts, check explicitly whether those contract types fall under the sector scheme or not — that difference can affect most of your payroll.
3. Repeat this every year, not just once
- Sector premiums change annually (like France's AGIRC-ARRCO rates) or in steps every few years (like Ireland) — last year's rate says nothing about this year's.
- If you hire staff across a border or open a second location in another EU country, repeat this whole checklist for that country separately — no rate in this article transfers.
- Keep your own copy of the latest official confirmation from your sector fund — not just your payroll provider's word that "it's correct".
The short answer
What a hospitality business legally or contractually owes toward staff pensions isn't one European figure — it runs from 0% in Germany (unless requested) to 8.57% employer share in the Netherlands, with France, Italy, Ireland, Poland and Belgium each carrying their own rate, threshold and exclusion in between.
Three of these schemes have also just changed: the Netherlands switched to a new premium structure on 1 January 2026, Ireland got its first-ever mandatory workplace pension on that same day, and Poland's PPK participation swings between barely half and over 60% of workers through 2026.
The fix costs no new system — ask your own sector fund or payroll provider for the exact rate, run it through the calculator above, and put future increases (like Ireland's path to 2035) in your multi-year budget now, rather than waiting for the next rise to land.