The volkskrant together with the UWV held a study monitoring the salaries of ten thousand unemployed labourers. There are unemployed people who are claiming unemployment benefits, but had found a job. The study looked at the wage gap before they claimed unemployment benefits, and when they had found work again for the same hours as before. It showed that employees saw an average of a five percent decrease in their salary.
Youngsters make the least in terms of net pay. It is mainly the elderly and the highly educated where the salary differences is plain to see. An example of this are highly educated labourers over the age of fifty-five in the ICT sector, who saw up to a twenty four percent decrease in their salary after a period of unemployment. Also, in the administrative sector, where there was a twenty percent decline.
The reasoning for this reduction in salary has to do with the concept that older employees lose knowledge related to their work during the period that they were unemployed. In addition to this, there is a highly competitive market of youths who do retain and have the required knowledge. According to Piet Vessies from the Werkgeversvereniging AWVN (Employers' Association) the salaries of the older employees are adjusted to better represent the the performance they can deliver.