EU Salary Bands & Fee Math by Sector: A Recruiter’s Quick Calculator

If you recruit across Europe, you know that salary conversations can drift into the abstract fast—especially when multiple sectors and countries are in play. The antidote is arithmetic you can show in one minute: salary → client fee → your commission → milestone payouts. This article gives you practical salary-to-fee-to-commission tables for common EU sectors (at 20%, 25%, and 30% client fees with a 50% recruiter share) and a downloadable calculator you can tweak per role: Download the sector calculator (Excel).

Before we jump in, a quick reminder of the model. On SkillSeek, invoicing and taxes are handled centrally, the platform issues client invoices at each milestone, and you keep a visible 50% fee share that pays out after client payment for each tranche. You focus on pipeline and delivery while the rails standardise paperwork. That’s why the maths below matters: it turns fee talk into predictable cash flow, and it travels cleanly across borders thanks to central billing and VAT handling. invoicing and taxes are handled

What follows is a recruiter-first view: short tables, a consistent way to present numbers in calls, and role-by-role notes you can paste into your workspace. All figures are illustrative bands you should adjust for local markets with the calculator linked above. Use this as a EU recruitment fee calculator in your day-to-day.

The three numbers to anchor every call

Salary band (by sector and role seniority).
Client fee % (20%, 25%, or 30% are the most common brackets in EU conversations).
Your share (50% of the placement fee, paid after the client pays each invoice).

Tie these to the milestone rhythm many SMEs prefer: sign-up (small tranche), placement confirmation, and retention cleared—milestone payouts that align cash with visible progress. milestone payouts

How to read the tables

Fee @20/25/30%: what the client pays in total at that fee % (across milestones).
Your 50% commission: what you receive across the project (released after each client payment).
M1 / M2 / M3: your commission split by 20/30/50 to show payout rhythm. (We illustrate milestones using the 25% fee case; tweak in the workbook.)

Keep your proposal to one page: a role headline, three outcome bullets, and a mini table pulled from this article or directly from the workbook. The faster the maths lands, the faster people book interviews.

Sector snapshots (illustrative, edit in the workbook)

The tables below show three salary points (low/mid/high) per sector. In real searches you’ll replace these with your live bands. The downloadable workbook includes a “Sector Tables” sheet you can adjust in seconds.

Software & Cloud — Representative role: Software Engineer

Level	Salary (€)	Fee @20%	Fee @25%	Fee @30%	Your 50% @20%	@25%	@30%	M1 20% (on @25%)	M2 30%	M3 50%
Low	45,000	9,000	11,250	13,500	4,500	5,625	6,750	1,125	1,688	2,813
Mid	65,000	13,000	16,250	19,500	6,500	8,125	9,750	1,625	2,438	4,063
High	90,000	18,000	22,500	27,000	9,000	11,250	13,500	2,250	3,375	5,625

Cybersecurity — Representative role: Security Engineer (Cloud)

Level	Salary (€)	Fee @20%	Fee @25%	Fee @30%	Your 50% @20%	@25%	@30%	M1 20%	M2 30%	M3 50%
Low	50,000	10,000	12,500	15,000	5,000	6,250	7,500	1,250	1,875	3,125
Mid	70,000	14,000	17,500	21,000	7,000	8,750	10,500	1,750	2,625	4,375
High	95,000	19,000	23,750	28,500	9,500	11,875	14,250	2,375	3,563	5,938

Manufacturing & Trades — Representative role: Maintenance Technician

Level	Salary (€)	Fee @20%	Fee @25%	Fee @30%	Your 50% @20%	@25%	@30%	M1	M2	M3
Low	32,000	6,400	8,000	9,600	3,200	4,000	4,800	800	1,200	2,000
Mid	42,000	8,400	10,500	12,600	4,200	5,250	6,300	1,050	1,575	2,625
High	55,000	11,000	13,750	16,500	5,500	6,875	8,250	1,375	2,063	3,438

Sales & Customer — Representative role: Account Executive (SMB)

Level	Salary (€)	Fee @20%	Fee @25%	Fee @30%	Your 50% @20%	@25%	@30%	M1	M2	M3
Low	40,000	8,000	10,000	12,000	4,000	5,000	6,000	1,000	1,500	2,500
Mid	55,000	11,000	13,750	16,500	5,500	6,875	8,250	1,375	2,063	3,438
High	75,000	15,000	18,750	22,500	7,500	9,375	11,250	1,875	2,813	4,688

Finance & Compliance — Representative role: Compliance Analyst

Level	Salary (€)	Fee @20%	Fee @25%	Fee @30%	Your 50% @20%	@25%	@30%	M1	M2	M3
Low	45,000	9,000	11,250	13,500	4,500	5,625	6,750	1,125	1,688	2,813
Mid	60,000	12,000	15,000	18,000	6,000	7,500	9,000	1,500	2,250	3,750
High	85,000	17,000	21,250	25,500	8,500	10,625	12,750	2,125	3,188	5,313

Logistics & Operations — Representative role: Operations Supervisor

Level	Salary (€)	Fee @20%	Fee @25%	Fee @30%	Your 50% @20%	@25%	@30%	M1	M2	M3
Low	35,000	7,000	8,750	10,500	3,500	4,375	5,250	875	1,313	2,188
Mid	48,000	9,600	12,000	14,400	4,800	6,000	7,200	1,200	1,800	3,000
High	65,000	13,000	16,250	19,500	6,500	8,125	9,750	1,625	2,438	4,063

Healthcare & Life Sciences — Representative role: Clinical Research Associate

Level	Salary (€)	Fee @20%	Fee @25%	Fee @30%	Your 50% @20%	@25%	@30%	M1	M2	M3
Low	45,000	9,000	11,250	13,500	4,500	5,625	6,750	1,125	1,688	2,813
Mid	60,000	12,000	15,000	18,000	6,000	7,500	9,000	1,500	2,250	3,750
High	80,000	16,000	20,000	24,000	8,000	10,000	12,000	2,000	3,000	5,000

These tables accomplish two things in a sales call. First, they set expectations (fees scale with salary). Second, they demonstrate that your own earnings follow the buyer’s payments: each recruiter payout is unlocked only after the client pays the corresponding invoice. That alignment is a trust signal—especially for first-time SME buyers.

How to use the downloadable workbook in live calls

Open the Calculator tab. Type the salary discussed by the client, set the fee % (20/25/30), and the workbook will calculate: the total client fee, your 50% commission, and the three milestone payouts (20/30/50) on your commission. If you want to show sector-specific bands, switch to Sector Tables and skim to the relevant row. If the client asks about cash timing: remind them that SkillSeek issues the invoices at each milestone and that your payout follows after client payment—you’re aligned on quality and timing. invoicing and taxes are handled

Positioning fee percentages without drama

20% fits transactional roles or recurring pipelines where speed is the main requirement.
25% is a balanced mid-market rate for roles that require some search depth and stakeholder time.
30% supports scarce skills, multiple interviewers, or shortlists that require hands-on advisory work.

If you want to steer a conversation toward 25%, show that your operating system reduces risk and admin: a professional @skillseek.eu email for first-touch trust, one-page profiles that make decisions faster, and platform-issued invoices that finance recognises immediately. Those particulars are why mid-market buyers pick a higher value point when the role is important.

Explaining recruiter economics (so buyers understand incentives)

Transparency turns negotiations into planning:

You keep 50% of the placement fee. On a €60,000 salary at 25%, the client fee is €15,000; your share is €7,500, typically paid €1,500 / €2,250 / €3,750 across milestones.
You are not funded until the buyer is happy to move forward; you are fully funded only after retention clears.
Because invoicing and taxes are handled centrally by the platform, approvals don’t languish in procurement—the paperwork looks the same on every search, and VAT treatment is correct.

This candour makes follow-on roles easier to price. It also sets you apart from generic agencies that dodge the money talk.

A one-minute script for pricing a new brief

“Given a salary band of €X–€Y, the client fee at 25% would be €[band], which releases as three milestone invoices (sign-up, placement, retention). I keep a 50% fee share and only receive each tranche after your payment. If we add scarcity or extra stakeholders, we could price at 30%; if it’s more transactional, 20% works. I’ll send a one-pager and the calculator so finance can see the numbers.”

The phrase “after your payment” is important; it tells finance your incentives track progress, not promises.

Role-by-role intake notes to pair with the tables

Tie numbers to outcomes, not just titles. Here are abbreviated intake prompts to keep your maths connected to business results:

Software Engineer: Which product or module moves in 90 days? Stack, release cadence, and on-call expectations?
Security Engineer: MFA coverage today; backup immutability; first restore test date; top three IAM gaps.
Maintenance Technician: Shift pattern, planned downtime windows, target reduction in mean time to repair (MTTR).
Account Executive (SMB): Territory shape, inbound/outbound split, quota realism, sales cycle length.
Compliance Analyst: Regulation drivers, backlog of customer questionnaires, audit window.
Operations Supervisor: Throughput target, team size, immediate bottlenecks, tooling.

These notes are where you’ll convince a hiring manager that EU-wide recruiting is viable for the role—outcomes are portable; tool names and shift windows translate across borders. EU-wide recruiting

Handling the most common objections with numbers

“We can’t approve retainers.”
No problem. Show the 20/30/50 rhythm. The sign-up tranche is small; each invoice corresponds to visible progress. Because the platform issues the invoices and VAT handling is correct, approvals are predictable.

“What if the hire fails?”
Point to the retention checkpoint. The final tranche only comes after the retention window clears; this ties economics to on-the-job success. Pair that with your Day-30 update template to prove you stay close to the hire.

“We need three options.”
Use the mid-band salary and show the fee at 20/25/30%. Then ask which level of depth the team wants (speed vs scarcity vs stakeholder wrangling). Move the conversation from price to outcomes.

When to pick 20% vs 25% vs 30% (and how to justify it)

Choose 20% for repeatable roles with abundant supply and a single hiring manager—e.g., L1 support, junior ops.
Choose 25% when you’ll improve the search with advisory work—tight intake, shortlists that read the same, structured interviews.
Choose 30% when skills are scarce, the intake is complex, or the org needs help aligning stakeholders and running a robust process.

Tie the percentage to your operating system: milestone cadence, one-page profiles, and the confidence of centralised billing. That way the “price” reads as an investment in speed and certainty, not a toll.

A short numbered list: how to turn tables into a signed project

Confirm the salary band and pick a fee % (start at 25%; move up or down with reasons).
Paste a three-row slice from the relevant sector table into your one-pager.
Offer two CET interview slots in the first email; attach nothing heavy.
Prepare the client↔SkillSeek contract; once signed, the platform issues invoices at each milestone.
Keep progress visible; your payouts arrive after client payment—20% / 30% / 50% of your commission.

Why the maths builds trust in EU mid-market searches

SME buyers approve what they can explain to their finance partner in under a minute. A clean table does that. So does a recognisable brand envelope—a professional @skillseek.eu email—and the assurance that invoicing and taxes are handled centrally. When you combine those signals with a crisp calculator, negotiations shrink and shortlists land sooner.

Pro tip: keep your own cheat sheet

Open the workbook’s Cash Flow sheet. Set the fee % and salary once per role type (e.g., €60k at 25%). Keep those outputs handy in your notes so you can answer “what does that mean in euros?” instantly. If a hiring manager shifts the salary mid-call, change the number and read the new totals out loud—your calm mastery of the maths is part of why they buy.

Download the sector calculator (Excel):
skillseek_eu_salary_fee_commission_calculator.xlsx