Holiday Act Denmark: 25 days, concurrent holiday and pay

Every employee in Denmark earns 5 weeks of paid holiday a year, counted as 25 working days. The Holiday Act (Ferieloven, LBK nr 152 of 20 February 2024) accrues it month by month, 2.08 days at a time, with 0.07 days per day for a part month (§§ 4 and 5). Someone who starts on 1 October has earned about 2 days by the end of that month and the full 25 only after a year.

Days are working days, taken on the same pattern as the person’s normal week, so a full-time employee uses 5 days for a week away (§ 6(2)). Most of the Act cannot be varied to the employee’s detriment, although collective agreements made by the most representative parties may adjust some provisions (§ 3).

Holiday is separate from public holidays. Danish public holidays are church holidays, 7 of which fell on weekdays in 2026, and salaried staff are paid in full for them. Any extra days off that a workplace grants on top of the 25 come from a collective agreement or the contract, not from the Act.

The weekday public holidays in 2026 were New Year’s Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day on 14 May, Whit Monday on 25 May and Christmas Day. Three dates, Constitution Day on 5 June plus 24 and 31 December, are often mistaken for public holidays, but none of them is statutory; banks close on them, and time off on those dates comes from agreements or custom. Plan the holiday calendar with both lists in view, because a week containing Ascension Day costs an employee only 4 holiday days.

Since the Act was rewritten, holiday is concurrent (samtidighedsferie): it can be taken in the same period in which it is earned. The holiday year (ferieår) runs from 1 September to 31 August, and the holiday-taking period (ferieafholdelsesperiode) runs from 1 September to the following 31 December, giving 16 months to use each year’s days.

For an employer, three consequences follow:

• A new starter can take holiday as soon as it is earned, so a hire from March can have about 10 days available by August.
• An employee may take up to 5 weeks in each period even if not all of it is earned yet; the unearned days are unpaid holiday (ferie uden løn) (§ 15).
• Holiday can also be taken in advance by agreement and set off against days earned later (§ 7).

If a salaried employee takes unpaid holiday, the deduction for each day is 4.8% of monthly salary (§ 15(3)). Track earned, taken and advanced days per person, because the September to December overlap means two holiday years are open at once for four months.

Holiday pay depends on how the employee is paid. Salaried staff, in the Act’s sense monthly-paid employees who keep full pay on sick days and public holidays, take ferie med løn: their normal salary continues during holiday, and they receive a holiday supplement (ferietillæg) of 1% of pay (§ 16(1)).

The supplement is paid either when the holiday starts or in two instalments: with May pay for holiday earned from 1 September to 31 May, and with August pay for holiday earned from 1 June to 31 August (§ 18). On a DKK 55,000 monthly salary, that is DKK 6,600 a year, most of it in May. Collective agreements may set a different percentage.

The effect shows on the payslip. In this site’s 2026 Copenhagen example, a standard month nets about DKK 35,519; May, which carries 9 months of supplement, nets about DKK 38,461, and August, with the remaining 3 months, about DKK 36,500. Employees notice the May bump, so explain it in the offer rather than leaving them to discover it.

Everyone else, typically hourly-paid staff, earns a holiday allowance (feriegodtgørelse) of 12.5% of pay, which the employer pays to FerieKonto rather than to the employee (§§ 16(2) and 31). The employee then draws it when taking holiday. A salaried employee can also opt for a 12% allowance in place of salary plus supplement, provided the choice is made before the holiday year begins (§ 16(3)).

The 12.5% is worked out on every krone of taxable pay, with employee pension contributions and AM-bidrag included in the base and holiday pay itself left out (§ 19). Late payment to FerieKonto carries interest of 1.5% for each started month (§ 31(3)), so build the payment into the same calendar as eIndkomst reporting.

The employer decides when holiday is taken, after consulting the employee, within limits set by § 8 and § 9 of the Act. Each person has a right to a block of at least 3 consecutive weeks of main holiday (hovedferie) between 1 May and 30 September, and may have at least 4 weeks placed within the holiday year.

Notice is part of the rule. The employer must give 3 months’ notice when fixing main holiday and 1 month for other holiday (§ 9(2)). A company that wants a collective summer shutdown therefore needs to announce it by spring at the latest.

Count the dates backwards. If the office will close for three weeks from a Monday in mid-July, the decision has to reach staff by the same date in mid-April. A one-week break in late October needs notice by late September. Publish dates you intend to keep, because staff will book travel around them, and agree any change with the people affected rather than announcing it.

• Main holiday cannot be imposed during a notice period of 3 months or less (§ 11(1)).
• An employee who is ill at the start of planned holiday does not have to start it (§ 12).
• Illness during holiday gives a right to replacement days after 5 sick days, provided the employee obtains a medical certificate at their own cost (§ 12).

For a manager planning a product launch in July, these rules mean the holiday calendar should be agreed by early spring, with the 3-week block for each person settled first and shorter breaks fitted around it.

The first 4 weeks are protected: they have to be taken as time off, and no cash pay-out is allowed during the employment (§§ 24 and 26). The fifth week is more flexible. The parties can agree in writing, no later than 31 December, to carry it into the next holiday-taking period, or the employer can pay it out once the holiday year has ended (§§ 21, 23 and 24).

Untaken holiday from the first 4 weeks that is neither transferred nor paid out does not stay with the employer. Untaken, unpaid holiday money goes to the Labour Market Holiday Fund (Arbejdsmarkedets Feriefond) under § 34, so an employer gains nothing when staff leave days unused, and the team loses the rest the days were meant to give.

Employees can check and request their holiday money through the self-service Feriepengeinfo (“Se og bestil feriepenge”). Claims for holiday pay become time-barred 5 years after the end of the holiday-taking period (§ 30), so a payroll mistake can resurface long after the fact.

In practice, the fifth week is where most questions arise. An employee who has taken 20 days by 31 August and wants to keep the remaining 5 for a long trip next year needs a written transfer agreement signed before 31 December. Without one, those days are paid out after the holiday year, and the employee loses the time off but keeps the money.

When an employment ends, any holiday not yet taken is converted into a 12.5% holiday allowance on the relevant pay (§ 16(4)), and the employee can ask for it to be paid out (§ 26). This applies to salaried staff too, even though they took holiday with pay while employed.

The calculation runs across both open holiday years if the person leaves between September and December. Reconcile days earned, days taken and any advance holiday before the final payslip, and remember that holiday advanced but not yet earned can be offset only where it was agreed under § 7.

A dismissal during the summer adds a further check: if notice is 3 months or less, main holiday cannot be placed in the notice period. The other sums that fall due at the end of an employment are listed in notice periods and severance in Denmark.

Under the Act, the employer keeps the records of earned and taken holiday, fixes holiday with the right notice, pays salary and the 1% supplement on time, reports holiday data through eIndkomst, pays holiday allowance to FerieKonto where it applies, and settles holiday on leaving. There is also a small charge to FerieKonto, DKK 4 a month for each person, in months when holiday pay is reported there.

When we employ the person for you, those tasks sit with us: the Holiday Act is applied in the Danish payroll we run, and the supplement and any allowance appear on the payslip and in the eIndkomst report. You still approve when people take their holiday, because you manage the work.

Before a first hire, check two things that change the numbers. First, whether a collective agreement applies to the role, because an agreement can set a different supplement or add extra days. Second, whether the person will be salaried or hourly-paid, because that decides between salary plus 1% and the 12.5% allowance through FerieKonto. Both choices should be written into the terms of employment the person gets in their first month.

For the full sequence from contract to payslip, read the EOR process in Denmark; for how holiday fits into the wider employer role, see employer of record explained for Denmark. The Act itself is published on Retsinformation, and Employer of Record Denmark can answer holiday questions for a specific hire.

Q01How many days of holiday do Danish employees get?+

A.25 working days, or 5 weeks, a year under the Holiday Act, earned at 2.08 days per month of employment. Public holidays come on top.

Q02When does the Danish holiday year run?+

A.From 1 September to 31 August. Holiday earned in that year can be taken until 31 December after it ends, a 16-month window.

Q03What is the 1% holiday supplement?+

A.Salaried staff who keep their salary during holiday also receive a supplement of 1% of pay, paid when the holiday starts or with May and August salary.

Q04What is the 12.5% holiday allowance?+

A.Staff outside the salaried model, typically hourly-paid, accrue 12.5% of pay as holiday allowance, and the employer pays it to FerieKonto. Untaken holiday is also settled this way at the end of an employment.

Q05Can unused holiday be paid out in Denmark?+

A.During employment, payment in lieu is not allowed for the first 4 weeks. The fifth week can be transferred by written agreement or paid out after the holiday year, and all untaken holiday is settled on leaving.