A very current discussion in .nl is the so-called ‘Balkenende norm’ or Balkenende income cap. Named after our current prime minister, this income level is deemed a reasonable maximum for anyone working in the public sector. Go over it and you are sure to be chastised. The media first, but the people quickly following.

People from the USA might find it disturbing: this income cap is a very real thing in our country. Set currently at about 160.000 euros (230k US$) this is inevitably your maximum wage if you work in the public sector. It doesn’t matter if your (privatised) company makes billions and/or if you take huge risks. ‘We’ are paying you so ‘we’ feel to have a right to maximise your salary.

It’s a sentiment most citizens across the world feel at some point, but we have managed to make it a norm.

The current discussion in .nl rages about salaries paid to CEOs in the health sector. In the last years, small parts of healthcare have been privatised and deregulated. This has brought with it all the nasty bits of capitalism: bean counters, middle management, time sheets and directors with huge salaries. In the past years some CEOs have managed to earn millions off semi-public services like home care.

I have to admit, it’s a little exorbitant.

Sorry about this picture of prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende, but he is name saint of this norm after all

The Balkenende norm is not law. Directors, even of public services, cannot be held to adhere it (only ministers of parliament and such, since they earn less than the prime minister by default). But the public outrage simply forces these people to yield to it eventually. (Or leave for the private sector, which many do.)

Private sector

There even exists a comparable norm for the private sector called the ‘Code Tabaksblat’. Named after a boardmember of Unilever, this code does not maximise salaries to that of Balkenende, but it does set rules for corporate governance, including salary. Invariably, media like de Volkskrant (people’s paper) will cry outrage when some CEO has managed to rake in millions while the stock of his company is tanking. In contrast to public sector workers though, this seldom affects salary levels. Most recent example of this is the paycheck of Anders Moberg, temporary CEO of Ahold, who had to give up a large percentage of his salary. Which still left him with many millions, of course.

Meeting and greeting Nederlanders is covered on a different page, but should you be invited to a Nederlandse birhday: fear not. They can be quite, shall we say, gezellig.

Today I am covering birthdays for grown-ups; children’s parties have an entirely different set of typicalities. All adult birthday celebrations start with an invitation, usually in person or over the phone. To accept, say “ja, gezellig”. Note the date in your calendar and show up reasonably on time.

What to give?

A gift is mandatory. What should you get? Contrary to many cultures, money does not make a bad gift in .nl. Sure it’s impersonal, but many people consider it appropriate when you don’t know the person very well. Make sure to put it in a nice little envelope though. Usually 10 or 20 euros will do fine.

Another safe gift is booze. A nice bottle of wine is most appropriate, but you can give it a personal swing and get a bottle of champagne, luxury beer or some other kind of liquor. A bottle from your home region is a very good idea, except Americans who consider giving American beer. Sorry folks, that’s just not good enough.

The more adventurous can give books or music or one of the many coupons we have: CD-bon, boekenbon, VVV-bon or any kind of store credit from national retail chains. It’s all good and most Dutch will genuinely like it.

Naturally, the best idea is to give something really personal. Dutch people love small gifts from abroad, either knicknacks or personal items. Your kids will want to draw a picture for the birthday boy or girl and even your presence alone is appreciated. Flowers are a good idea, too.

Birthday cake

Even grown ups eat birthday cake, but for people working outside home, this is usually a perogative shared with coworkers. It is quite customary for office workers to buy a cake or hearty treats on a birthday and share these at about 11AM. It’s too bad that presents from colleagues are often extremely forgettable though. If you’re lucky, you get an envelope with money. A card is usually signed by your close colleagues. Any leftovers are either left in the fridge at the office (and thrown away next day) or brought home.

The celebration

Those lucky enough to have their birthdays on the weekend (either Friday or Saturday) will usually throw a big party at home, after dinner. The most dreaded situation is this one: all chairs from the house in a circle in the living room. These events usually take place at older people’s birthdays. The younger the person celebrating, the more informal the occasion is going to be. There might be music, there might be people in various states of drunkenness, there will be small snacks and there will be drinks. Because the host is busy, you will often be left to yourself or to the other guests. It is considered good manners to introduce yourself and do the usual smalltalk.

Potato chips, always a success

It is not very common to celebrate a birthday with dinner, although this is starting to change. When not specified, the invitation is for a post-dinner gathering and people will expect you to have eaten. Snacks will be served though, and contrary to what you might think, often in abundance. Cheese and salami-type sausages are pretty much a given, as are potato chips. In urban environments you will find a selection of tapenades, olives, Turkish bread and other assorted multicultural snacks.

Drinks then? Yes please! There will be beer, and good beer at that. Heineken is just your every day pilsner from the supermarket. Better beers too, such as Palm are probably available. Wine then, yes, both white and red. And sodas. And water, flat or sparkling. And coffee. Yep, you will probably be fine.

Euro

As you should know, the currency of Nederland is the euro. Many European countries use it and it is a strong currency. In general, Dutch people are fine with it. Before the euro, we had the gulden (guilder or ƒ) for  centuries. In many respects, Nederland has lost a bit of history with the transition. Almost every Nederlander loves the design of the guilder banknotes, which were bright and colourful with graphic sans-serif fonts (see below). But, the progress embodied in the new currency is seen as a big plus as well. Overall, the hospitality business and especially bars and restaurants are seen as profiteering from the transition; as prices for drink and food have doubled in recent years. Naturally, a big part of the blame lies with increased food prices.

Cash

Nederland is not a cash-based society; for daily groceries almost everybody pays with debit card (PIN; see below). Bigger transactions are done electronically. Only in bars and cafés is cash still king. In general it is a good idea to have 40-50 euro walking-around money with you; use it to pay a street vendor, a parking meter (although using the chip on your debit/credit card is now commonplace) or a beer in a café. The smallest coins of 1 and 2 eurocents are completely worthless; these will not buy you anything. When paying cash, shops will round to the nearest five cents. The bigger coins are worth €1 and €2 and these are useful for paying drinks and food. Notes start at €5. The biggest notes are €200 and €500; these are not accepted in supermarkets and smaller shops.

Debit card society

While the US economy is based on credit in general and credit cards specifically, Nederlanders pay almost exclusively with debit card. This system is simply called ‘PIN’ and is pronounced like you would in English. The most commonly used cards all have a Maestro logo; if yours has that, it will work. PIN is freakin’ ubiquitous: even market stalls offer a pin machine. We use the old-fashioned swipe system; lately it has been causing controversy because of criminals ‘skimming’ the magnetic strip. Luckily, Dutch banks do not seem to make a fuss about reimbursement when it happens to you. There is talk of a new Europe-wide PIN system based on Visa; alledgedly things will become more expensive while service will go down. That’s progress innit?

Along with the PIN-machines in shops is the ATM machine on the street. These are always attached to a bank; stand-alone ATMs are very, very rare and even if you can find one, it will be from a bank anyway. Service charges are nominal and using ATMs is part of everyday life. Among the bigger banks with ATMs in Holland are Postbank (will become ING in 2009), Rabobank, ABN-AMRO and ING, but there are others as well. Using a machine is safe, most often they are directly on the street or inside a small vestibule inside the bank building. They have notes of 10, 20 and 50 euro.

A new system for paying small amounts (on the order of 1-2 euros) is being introduced: it’s simply called ‘chip’. (It would seem money and fancy names don’t mix very well in Nederland.) Initially this system was a flop since there were two competing standards and nobody would bother to invest. Now though the standards have merged and chipping is slowly gaining ground. It is used a lot for paying parking meters. Unfortunately, if you’re from abroad your chip will not work. The new European standard is set to change this too.

Credit cards

The big credit cards are accepted everywhere: Master Card, Visa and American Express. And with everywhere I mean mostly restaurants and non-food shops. You can generally not pay with credit card in a supermarket, nor is it useful in smallish stores. You can use it to ATM cash though. Not very many people will use a credit card to pay for everyday purchases, and even for people using them, it is quite common to pay off all debt every month. Of course, there are many people who live on credit as well. Card interest works the same as you’d expect. We have a national bureau which checks people’s credit called Bureau Kredietregistratie or simply “Tiel” after their place of business. All personal debt is registered here; mortgages and loans for instance. In theory you can be denied a loan but you’d have to be in serious debt before that happens.

Across the wire

For bigger amounts and certainly anything above 1000, electronic transactions are the norm. Only people working in restaurants and bars will receive their paycheck in cash; virtually everyone else receives it directly in their bank account (and most full-time restaurant staff as well, I’d wager). Checks are completely phased out: you cannot use them anywhere except at a bank window. And even then it’s usually a lot of trouble. Traveller’s checks can be exchanged for money at banks and exchange-offices; though if you are from a somewhat developed country I would strongly suggest you use an ATM to get your cash.

Among friends it is common to wire money if someone has footed a bill. When shopping for big stuff like kitchens or cars paying electronically is the norm as well, often paying the deposit using PIN. People under 30 all use internet to deal with banking affairs; under 40 most people do, above that age it is actually a rare thing. Banks are pushing people to use the internet since it’s cheaper for them. How Dutch!

Paying for things like magazine subscriptions, taxes and donations and utility bills is done electronically as well. You either receive and fill out an ‘acceptgiro’ card (see above) or allow the other party to deduct the amount directly from your bank account. The acceptgiro method is, again, slowly being phased out. It’s usually a few euros more expensive than the direct-transfer option. In general it is quite safe to allow businesses to deduct the money; there are laws governing these transactions and you can always call the bank to undo the transaction. They will do this (called a ‘stornering‘) without fuss, making this a widely used choice of payment.