Working in Malta: free as an EU citizen, a weekly minimum wage, and your employer registers you with Jobsplus

Yes, as a Dutch national you may work in Malta without a work permit. Working is even possible before your residence card arrives, Identità writes, but your employment must always be registered with Jobsplus, the Maltese employment service. What you earn at least: the minimum wage for those aged eighteen or over is 229.44 euros a week in 2026, with four fixed bonuses a year. The find at Jobsplus: your employer must submit the engagement form on your first working day, and an EU national working in Malta for the first time provides proof of address with it, such as the lease. The trap: no home means no proof of address, and without registration with Jobsplus no residence card as an employee.

Do I need a permit?

No. An EU national works freely. What your employer must do is register you with an engagement form: on the first working day and at the latest within four working days of the start date, online via Jobsplus. He attaches a copy of your identity document, and if it is your first job in Malta also proof of your address. When the work ends, a termination form follows within four working days.

That registration is also your key at Identità: whoever applies for a residence card as an employee must be registered with Jobsplus under active employment and provides an employment contract no older than six months or the Jobsplus work history. If you lose your job, you register with Jobsplus as a jobseeker and adjust the ground of your residence.

What do I earn at least?

EURES gives the Maltese minimum wage for 2026:

Age	Minimum wage per week
18 and over	229.44 euros
17	222.66 euros
16	219.82 euros

On top of that, employees receive a fixed bonus four times a year: 121.16 euros in March and September, 135.10 euros in June and December. Each year a pay increase for the higher cost of living is added. Compared with the rest of the EU, the Maltese minimum wage is low: according to the Eurostat figures for the first quarter of 2026 that EURES cites, 994 euros a month, against 2,295 euros in the Netherlands. Most wages are paid above the minimum, though.

What is in my contract?

In Malta you always have an employment contract, and at the latest seven days after you start you receive a written statement of your conditions of employment, in English or Maltese. What EURES further mentions:

• Probation: usually six months, and a year for technical, executive, administrative and managerial posts paying more than twice the minimum wage. In the first month either party can stop without notice, after that with a week.
• Fixed-term contracts last at least six months, unless there is an objective reason, and after four years in a row without justification they automatically become permanent.
• Working time: 40 hours a week, with an average of at most 48 hours including overtime, unless you agree in writing to more.
• Leave: with a 40-hour week, 216 hours of holiday in 2026, plus 14 national and public holidays.

A payslip is mandatory, and in case of doubt the more favourable one counts. Since 1 January 2019 your employer must give you a detailed payslip before or on pay day, with your hours, overtime, leave balance and deductions. If two different payslips exist for the same period, the one most favourable to you prevails. So keep them all.

And if I start working for myself?

Then you go past four counters, according to EURES: you apply for a social security number at the Department of Social Security, you register yourself with Jobsplus, you register as self-employed with the tax authority, and you register for VAT, with a trading licence if your activity requires one. For a residence card as self-employed, Identità wants to see those VAT, tax and social security certificates, together with your Jobsplus history.

What happens to your income: whoever works in Malta pays Maltese tax on that wage, which the employer deducts every month. How that combines with a Dutch pension is in AOW, pension and tax in Malta; how the registration continues, in staying in Malta. Where work falls in your sequence is in the step-by-step plan for Malta.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.2: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Malta or go straight to step 5.2 in the open plan.