Salaries in Denmark
Salaries for public sector employees according to current agreement
As a public sector employee you are covered by the agreements entered into by the government, the regions or the municipalities, depending on where you are employed. Your salary consists of a basic salary which is decided centrally and depends on how many years you have been employed, the so-called “seniority”. Various supplements may be added to your basic salary. These supplements are negotiated locally in the workplace and depend on your responsibilities and qualifications. In addition to your salary, you also get a pension contribution. The size of the pension contribution is governed by the current agreement.
Salary for private sector employees – according to agreement or individual negotiations
As a private sector employees, your salary is either individually negotiated between you and your employer, or based on an agreement concluded between your trade union and your workplace. Even if such an agreement exists, it can be worth your while to negotiate individually with your employer.
Pension
Please note that the pension systems in Sweden and Denmark are very different. If your salary is based on individual negotiations, you are often discussing gross salary, i.e. including pension. However, there is no guarantee that your workplace has a pension scheme. You should always investigate whether the employer contributes to your pension and, if so, how much. In that way, you can judge whether you need to contribute to your pension yourself and how it affects your salary.
Your total salary
When assessing your future salary, it is important that you look at the total amount and that you know what is included in terms of pension, supplements and benefits. The following are examples of benefits that may be included in the salary package:
- Extra holidays (all employees are entitled to a minimum of five weeks’ holidays, but many workplaces also offer extra days off, so-called “feriefridage”)
- Health insurance
- Home phone and/or internet
- Lunch
Keep track of your salary
You can generally find information about current collective agreements on the trade unions’ websites.
You can also get an idea about salary levels by going to the Jobindex website, Denmark’s largest job portal. There you can compare your salary with the salary of others by specifying your job title, geographical area, age, level of education and experience. You can also find information on lonstatistik.dk where private individuals enter information about their salaries.
