Working in Denmark as a French National: Right to Work, Salaries, Tax and Contributions

As a citizen of the European Union, a French national can take up a job in Denmark without prior authorisation. For a stay of more than three months, they apply for an EU residence document on newtodenmark.dk within three months of entry, then appear at SIRI (the Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration) within 30 days; a person looking for a job has six months to file this application (lifeindenmark.borger.dk). A person who works legally in Denmark falls under the Danish health insurance system and receives a health card after registering with a general practitioner.

The practical formalities follow the order described in the page on living in Denmark: residence document, permanent address, CPR number, tax card, bank account and MitID. The guide to working abroad complements these benchmarks with questions of status.

The official portal lifeindenmark.borger.dk states it plainly: Denmark has no statutory minimum wage. Pay and employment conditions are, as a general rule, set by collective agreements (overenskomster) or negotiated individually between the employer and the employee. The most common forms of payment are monthly, daily, hourly and piece-rate pay.

EURES, the European job mobility network, reports collective bargaining coverage of about 82% in Denmark (OECD-ICTWSS data) and confirms that in 2024 the country relied on collective bargaining to set pay floors. In practice, the applicable floor is found in the agreement of the sector or company: the contract and the payslip give the references.

Danmarks Statistik publishes salaries by sector. In 2025, the average monthly salary reaches 53,916 DKK and the median salary 48,700 DKK. Standardised hourly pay, which includes base salary, bonuses, pension and paid leave, reaches 329.61 DKK across all sectors, 342.38 DKK in private companies, 332.85 DKK in the State, 332.44 DKK in the regions and 281.30 DKK in the municipalities. The standardised wage index rises by 3.2% in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same quarter of 2025.

These averages can be compared with the rents presented in the page on living in Denmark and with offers in the target sector; EURES identifies, for 2024, shortage occupations among science and engineering associate professionals, science and engineering professionals, and business and administration associate professionals.

The calculation has three layers: the 8% AM-bidrag on earned income, state tax by brackets and municipal tax, to which church tax is added for members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. In 2026, the bottom bracket is 12.01% above the personal allowance of 54,100 DKK; the middle bracket of 7.5% applies above 641,200 DKK of personal income after AM-bidrag, the top bracket of 7.5% above 777,900 DKK and the additional top bracket of 5% above 2,592,700 DKK.

• Tax card (skattekort): it lets the employer withhold tax at source; the main card is given to one employer only, the secondary card is used for additional income, and the 8% AM-bidrag remains due even with an exemption card.
• Tax return: the annual tax assessment (årsopgørelse) is available in March; the deadline to update the assessment runs until 1 July of the following year, through the E-tax service with MitID.
• Scheme for researchers and highly paid employees: tax on gross earned income is 32.84% (AM-bidrag and 27%) for 7 years at most, subject to conditions: a doctorate-level research degree, or a guaranteed monthly salary of at least 65,400 DKK in 2026, and no Danish tax liability in the previous 10 years.

The tax treaty between France and Denmark was signed in Paris on 4 February 2022 and entered into force on 29 December 2023, applying to income from 1 January 2024 (BOFiP, the French tax authority’s official doctrine, impots.gouv.fr). For salaries, article 14 provides for taxation in the State where the employment is exercised, with an exception for stays not exceeding 183 days over twelve months where the employer is not a resident of the State of activity and the pay is not borne by a permanent establishment located in that State.

The Danish system is largely funded by tax (CLEISS, the French liaison centre for international social security). Contributions specific to work include the 8% AM-bidrag on gross income, the ATP contribution, a compulsory supplementary pension for employees aged at least 16 who work at least nine hours a week, and, as an option, membership of an unemployment insurance fund (a-kasse). According to CLEISS, which publishes the 2025 rates, the ATP contribution of a full-time employee is 297 DKK a month, split one third paid by the employee and two thirds by the employer, and the fixed part of unemployment insurance paid to the State is 364 DKK a month; the fund adds its variable share.

The local contract places the employee under the Danish scheme; contributions and optional unemployment insurance are handled with the employer and the chosen fund.

CLEISS states that the same scheme covers employees and the self-employed; unemployment insurance is voluntary for both, and the self-employed are not compulsorily covered against work accidents and occupational diseases, which they insure on an optional basis. The 8% AM-bidrag also applies to the profit of self-employed activity (Skattestyrelsen).

An employee seconded by a French company remains affiliated to French social security: the maximum length shown on form A1 is 24 months (Your Europe). See the glossary entry on the seconded employee and the guide secondment versus expatriation. For remote work from France for a Danish employer, the situation falls under the European coordination rules; CLEISS and Assurance Maladie (the French national health insurance) provide information on the scheme that applies in each situation.

The currency is the Danish krone (DKK). Since 1982, Denmark has pursued a fixed exchange rate policy, first against the German mark and then against the euro since 1999: it takes part in the ERM II exchange rate mechanism with a central rate of 746.038 kroner per 100 euros and a fluctuation band of plus or minus 2.25% (Danmarks Nationalbank).

EURES indicates that in 2022 employment was concentrated in wholesale and retail trade (22.4%), manufacturing (15.3%) and construction (9.2%). The growth, unemployment and inflation indicators on the page are updated continuously; they are read together with the salaries and taxation above.