Your first employee in Denmark: decisions and paperwork for 2026

Your first employee in Denmark is easier to hire once three facts about the job are fixed: whether it is salaried, how many hours it involves, and where the work happens. Each one pulls in a different Danish statute, so settle them before anyone drafts a contract.

Salaried or not. A salaried employee (funktionær) falls under the Salaried Employees Act (Funktionærloven), which fixes notice, sick pay, probation and severance in the employee’s favour and cannot be varied to their detriment. Ferieloven describes this group as monthly-paid staff with full pay on public holidays and sick days. An hourly-paid worker is handled differently, most visibly for holiday, where a 12.5% holiday allowance is paid to FerieKonto instead of pay during holiday.

Hours. SIRI describes full time as, as a rule, 37 to 40 hours a week. Whatever you choose, the Working Time Act caps average weekly working time, overtime included, at 48 working hours over 4 months, each 24-hour period must include at least 11 consecutive hours of rest, and each 7-day period needs a 24-hour rest day, if possible on a Sunday. Write the normal hours and how overtime is arranged and paid into the terms, because both are required items. If the person will also work abroad for more than 4 consecutive weeks, the Written Terms of Employment Act requires extra information before departure, including the country, the currency of pay and the return terms.

Place of work. An office address, the employee’s home or a mix are all possible. Home working brings the Working Environment Act with it in a limited form: since 1 July 2026 a dedicated executive order sets which rules apply at home, and the screen-work rules apply whenever a screen is used regularly for a not insignificant part of the day.

Denmark sets no statutory minimum wage, so the salary is a market decision unless a collective agreement (overenskomst) binds the employer. Candidates will compare your number with what they know from Danish employers, and many will ask a second question immediately: what about pension?

By law, the only employer pension is ATP, the statutory supplementary pension, and for a full-time person paid monthly the employer pays DKK 198 a month while the employee pays DKK 99. Occupational pension beyond that comes from collective agreements or the contract. You are free not to offer one, but decide deliberately and state clearly whether the salary figure includes a pension contribution or not; a misunderstanding here can reopen an offer you thought was settled.

Two other pay points are worth knowing early. There is no statutory 13th-month salary, so any bonus is a contract term. Salaried staff also get a holiday supplement (ferietillæg) of 1% in addition to salary, normally paid out with the May and August salaries. If the hire is a non-EU national, the Pay Limit Scheme sets a 2026 floor of DKK 552,000 a year for the permit, and pension contributions and holiday supplement count towards it. Our guide to pay floors without a minimum wage explains how to benchmark.

A new employee needs an identity in the Danish administrative system before payroll can treat them properly. For someone already living in Denmark this exists; for someone relocating it has to be created, and the employee does most of it themselves.

• a CPR number, issued by the municipal Citizen Service when the stay exceeds 3 months (or 6 months for EU, EEA and Nordic citizens), which requires a permanent Danish address; shorter stays use a personal tax number
• an electronic tax card, created by Skattestyrelsen from the preliminary income assessment, which tells the employer the withholding rate and monthly allowance
• a NemKonto, the account public authorities pay into
• MitID, the digital ID used for banking and for Skattestyrelsen’s self-service

If the tax card is not in place when payroll runs, the employer must withhold 55%. The money is not lost, but it is an unpleasant first payslip, so make the tax card part of the onboarding plan rather than an afterthought. The CPR registration also brings the national health insurance card, which matters to someone arriving with a family. The sequence, week by week, is in our article on the EOR process from offer to payslip.

Ansættelsesbevisloven, the Danish act on written terms of employment, covers anyone working more than 3 hours a week on average, and gives the employer two deadlines: the core terms by day 7 of the employment, everything else inside its first month. Most employers simply put everything into the contract and hand it over before day one.

Probation is the clause first-time employers most often get wrong. The Act caps probation at 6 months, and at a quarter of the term for a fixed-term job. For a salaried employee, though, Funktionærloven allows a probation of up to 3 months during which the employer’s notice is 14 days; after 3 months, ordinary salaried notice applies even if a longer probation was written in.

A few other rules shape the drafting:

• fixed-term contracts have no statutory maximum length, but renewing them repeatedly needs objective reasons, such as covering an absent colleague
• the employee may take a side job unless it is incompatible with the work, for example because of trade secrets or a conflict of interest
• training the employer requires must be free of charge, count as working time and take place in working hours where possible
• any change to the terms has to be confirmed in writing by the date it takes effect at the latest

Errors are expensive in proportion to the salary. An employee who did not receive the required information can be awarded compensation of up to 13 weeks’ pay, or up to 20 weeks with aggravating circumstances. For an excusable, harmless omission, the cap is DKK 1,000.

A new employee starts earning holiday straight away: 2.08 days for each month of employment, 25 days over a full year, under the Holiday Act (Ferieloven). Holiday is taken in the same holiday year in which it is earned, from 1 September to 31 August, with a taking period that runs on to 31 December.

Two consequences surprise first-time employers. A new hire can take up to 5 weeks’ holiday in a period even if not all of it has been earned yet; the unearned days are simply unpaid. And employer and employee can agree holiday in advance, to be set off against holiday earned later. Both are worth discussing in the first weeks, especially when someone starts in spring and has a summer trip already booked.

The employer fixes the holiday after consulting the employee, with 3 months’ notice for the main holiday, which is at least 3 consecutive weeks between 1 May and 30 September, and 1 month’s notice for other holiday. The full mechanics, including the fifth week and what happens on leaving, are in our guide to the Danish Holiday Act for employers.

Sickness is the area where a contract decision made at the start changes the outcome years later. A salaried employee keeps full pay while ill, and the employee must report sickness no later than 2 hours after work begins. For 30 calendar days the cost is the employer’s alone; after that, while salary continues, the employer can reclaim the municipal sickness benefit as a refund, capped in 2026 at DKK 5,085 per week.

The 120-day rule in Funktionærloven § 5(2) allows an employer to dismiss with 1 month’s notice once a salaried employee has received pay during sickness for 120 days within 12 consecutive months. It applies only if the written contract includes it. If you want the option, it has to go into the first contract; adding it later is a change the employee must accept.

Parental leave is generous and partly refunded. A mother has leave from 4 weeks before the expected birth and 10 weeks after it, a father or co-mother 2 weeks within the first 10 weeks, and each parent then has 32 weeks of leave. Until 14 weeks after the birth, a salaried mother has a right to no less than half pay, and the employer receives the state benefit as a refund; Barsel.dk reimburses part of the salary paid during leave. Separately, every employee can take 5 days a year of unpaid care leave (omsorgsorlov) for a seriously ill relative.

Public holidays round out the calendar. Salaried staff receive full pay on them, and 2026 has 7 that fall on weekdays, from New Year’s Day to Christmas Day. When a public holiday lands on a weekend, it is simply lost that year. None of Constitution Day (5 June), 24 December or 31 December is a statutory public holiday, so whether the office closes on those dates is something to decide and communicate early.

Everything above has to be done by the employer, and for a first employee you have two ways to be that employer: form a Danish company and set it up as an employer, or have an employer of record hold the contract while your managers run the work.

With the second route, we draft the contract and terms, run the payroll and handle holiday, sickness refunds and the filings, while the decisions in this checklist, from salary to pension to the 120-day clause, stay with you. Budget from €599 per employee per month. Before you settle on a provider, the six checks we set out for choosing an EOR in Denmark will help, and the Employer of Record Denmark homepage sets out how the service works.

Whichever route you take, work backwards from the start date. Salary, pension and the 120-day decision come first, because they shape the contract. The contract goes out before day one so the 7-day deadline is met without effort. The CPR number and tax card follow as early as the employee can arrange them, and holiday planning starts in the first month, not when the summer requests arrive.

Q01What does a first employee in Denmark need before the first payday?+

A.A CPR number or personal tax number, an electronic tax card and a bank account. Without a tax card the employer must withhold 55%, so the tax card is the item to chase.

Q02How long can probation be for a first employee in Denmark?+

A.Up to 6 months under the Written Terms of Employment Act. For a salaried employee, the special 14-day notice applies only in the first 3 months.

Q03Do I have to offer a pension?+

A.Only ATP is required by law; for full-time staff paid monthly, the employer’s share is DKK 198 a month and the employee’s DKK 99. Any further pension comes from a contract or collective agreement.

Q04Can a new employee take holiday in the first year?+

A.Yes. Holiday is earned at 2.08 days a month and can be taken in the same holiday year. Up to 5 weeks can be taken even if not yet earned, with the unearned days unpaid.

Q05What is the 120-day rule?+

A.A clause that lets the employer dismiss a salaried employee with 1 month’s notice after 120 days of paid sickness in 12 months. It only applies if it is written into the contract.