Pension systems

Our pension system consists of four different pillars:

• Statutory pension from the government
• Employer-offered pension plan
• Individual pension savings plan
• Voluntary personal savings

The main pillar is the first one. Within that first pillar, there are different schemes.

Government workers get a so called "ambternarenpensioen", which is higher than non governmental employees. The reasoning was probably that a regular non-government employee would've been offered a higher salary and some extra pillar 2 contributions.

If you are self employed on the other hand, then you pay less social security for the same salary, and are therefore entitled to a lower statutory pension. On top of that, you are tax incentivized to give yourself a lower salary, causing even lower pensions.

It is sometimes mentioned that some governmental pensions workers are absurdly high, and that we ought to look there for significant savings. Luckily, that data can be found online! In what follows, I will not be looking at the survivor-pension, a contribution you get when your partner passes away. I will only look at the individual "rustpensioenen".

Het ambtenarenspensioen

This plot contains all people that worked for the government at some point.

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