Danish standards for salary

To be granted a residence and work permit your salary and terms of employment must correspond to Danish standards. This means that you must receive a remuneration, which corresponds to the standards of the type of employment in question in Denmark.

This condition applies to both first time applications and applications for extension.

It applies to  the following schemes:

• Pay Limit Scheme
• Supplementary Pay Limit Scheme
• Fast track Scheme (pay limit track, supplementary pay limit track, short term track, researcher track) 
• Researcher's Scheme
• Positive List for People with a Higher Education 
• Positive List for Skilled Work
• Special Individual Qualifications Scheme

In cases under the Positive List for Skilled Work, the assessment of whether the salary corresponds to Danish standards is made according to specific principles, which you can find more information about on the application page for the Positive List for Skilled Work.

If you are applying for a work permit for sideline employment or a separate work permit as an accompanying family member, it is also a condition that your salary corresponds to Danish standards.

When assessing whether the salary corresponds to Danish standards, only liquid funds that are paid out are included in the assesment, i.e. the fixed and guaranteed salary, payments to labour market pension schemes and holiday allowance. The employer can provide staff benefits such as board and lodging as a supplement to the salary, but staff benefits cannot be included in the assessment of whether the salary and terms of employment correspond to Danish standards.

Uncertain salary income such as commissions or bonuses cannot normally be included in the calculation of your salary.

In most cases filed after 1 January 2021, the salary must be paid to a Danish bank account.

Cases where we typically assess that the salary corresponds to Danish standards

SIRI will usually assume that your salary corresponds to Danish standards, if it is stated in the application form and employment contract that:

• Your employment is covered by a collective agreement. It must stated in the employment contract that your employment is covered by a collective agreement in the relevant sector/line of employment. Please note that the employer must have adopted the agreement merely following an agreement is not sufficient in this regard.

In such cases, we will usually not make further assessment of whether the salary offered corresponds to Danish standards. 

Cases where we will examine whether the salary corresponds to Danish standards

We assess whether the salary corresponds to Danish standards when the employer is a member of an employers' organisation, but the employment relationship is not covered by a collective agreement. If the salary is just above the regular pay limit, SIRI will generally assume that the salary corresponds to Danish standards.

In cases where the employment relationship is not covered by a collective agreement and the employer is not a member of an employers' organisation, SIRI will assess whether the salary corresponds to Danish standards up to approximately DKK 71,000.

When we assess whether the salary corresponds to Danish standards, we use the income statistics from The Confederation of Danish Employers (DA) as a guideline.

In order to apply DA’s income statistics, we need to have information about job title, job description, relevant work experience for the offered position and the the six-digit DISCO code corresponding to the job function. 

Read about DISCO and DISCO codes

Once we have the information mentioned above, we can assess whether the offered salary corresponds to Danish standards. The offered salary must as a minimum be at the lower quartile level for the job function in question (six-digit DISCO code) and equivalent years of work experience in DA’s income statistics for the region in which you work.

If the work is performed in a different region than the region in which your employer’s company has its CVR address, the salary must correspond to Danish standards in the region in which the work is performed – if the workplace is fixed. The address and P number (p-nummer) of the fixed workplace must be evident from the employment contract.

DA's income statistics valid for applications submitted from 1 October 2024 (in Danish only)

DA's income statistics valid for applications submitted from 1 January 2025 (in Danish only)

If we assess that the salary does not correspond to Danish standards, we can ask for a comment from your employer.

If we assess that the income statistics show a salary that does not correspond to Danish standards, e.g. compared to the overall salary level for the same job function, we can ask the Regional Labour Market Councils (RARs) to assess whether your salary corresponds to Danish standards. If RAR finds that your salary does not correspond to Danish standards, we will request your employer’s comments before we make a decision in your case.