As is customary each year, the salary requirements for Highly Skilled Migrants and European Blue Card holders will increase starting on January 1, 2013. An employee who would like to work in the Netherlands as a Highly Skilled Migrant or holder of a European Blue Card will be required to earn a certain minimum gross annual income to do so legally.

This gross annual income is referred to as the income requirement. Employees who perform scientific research or who are doctors in training to become specialists are not required to satisfy this requirement. Such employees have to satisfy the provisions of the Minimum Wage Act. 

The new salary requirements
› Highly skilled migrants from the age of 30: 52.010 euros
› Highly skilled migrants younger than 30:
38.141 euros
› Persons who have graduated in the Netherlands and the Highly Educated Migrants Scheme: 27.336 euros
› Holder of a Blue Card: 60.952 euros

Effective as of January 1, the income requirement for Highly Skilled Migrants is reviewed annually by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment on the basis of the most recent index figure for Collective Labour Agreement wages, published by Statistics Netherlands.