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Parliament finally lowers non-EU worker salary limit
Benedicte Vagner
June 30th, 2022
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This article is more than 2 years old.
Businesses can now offer new employees from outside the union a three-year contract with an annual wage of 375,000 kroner
Parliament lowers the minimum amount for non-EU workers to work in Denmark. (photo: Jacob Kjerumgaard)
The minimum salary needed by a non-EU worker to be employed in Denmark has officially been lowered.
Benefitting Danish businesses
MPs backed the plans to lower limit from 448,000 to 375,000 kroner on Wednesday. It should enable far more non-EU workers to be employed in Denmark, thus decreasing the pressure on the labour shortages Denmark is currently experiencing.
The minister of finance, Nicolai Wammen, believes the agreement will increase the workforce in Denmark and benefit Danish businesses that are particularly suffering to attract foreign labour.
Danish businesses can now confidently offer prospective employees three-year contracts in which they will be paid 375,000 kroner a year.
Not everyone is in favour
It was announced in February by the government that it wanted to lower the limit to 375,000 kroner over the next two years, but Parliament rejected the plans in early June.
Blue bloc parties Venstre, Konservative, Liberal Alliance and Nye Borgerlige wanted to lower the limit to 360,000 kroner permanently – this was also shut down.
Through compromise, the plan to pay non-EU workers a minimum of 375,000 kroner for the next three years was finally been agreed upon – even though some trade unions held reservations.
Dansk Industri supports the decision as it strongly believes that the lack of labour is one of the largest problems faced by Denmark. However, Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation, and specifically its chair Lizette Risgaard, is concerned the agreement will lead to lower wages across the board, which will be bad news given the current high rates of inflation.
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