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How to hire remote employees in
It doesn’t matter where your HQ is, we can tell you one thing: Denmark has different labor laws than your home country (well, unless your home country is Denmark, of course). If you don’t do things right, you’ll be putting your company at the risk of fines—and risk losing the talent you brought onboard.
If you want to successfully hire in
Denmark
, you have two options:
Laws about hiring contractors are significantly more simple in
Denmark
. Onboarding talent takes days, not weeks or months. Both you, the company, and your talent have more flexibility. And in many cases, since you’re remote, the talent you’re hiring is better classified as a contractor, anyway. Of course, it’s not possible in every case, but it’s what we built Thera for.
This is the long route. You can either establish a physical presence with an entity and register as an employer, or you can use an Employer-of-Record (EOR) solution. Odds are, you’ll find using an EOR to be the easier route. Still, using an EOR in
Denmark
is expensive—it can often be $500 per month per employee—and sometimes prone to lengthy onboarding times.
Hiring contractors is normally the easier, faster, more flexible choice—but don’t just take it from us. Below are the specific benefits and drawbacks to hiring contractors in
Denmark
.
Hiring employees takes months, at the minimum. When you hire with Thera's locally-generated contracts, it’s a matter of days or weeks. This means you can hire the best talent, fast, without losing them to a hellish procession of paperwork.
It costs just $0 to sign up for Thera, then $25 per month to hire your contractors with Thera. If you hired employees manually (or did contracting on your own), you’d likely be on the hook for thousands of dollars each month. Setting up an entity alone can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Hiring contractors in
Denmark
means you’re generally not on the hook for things like health insurance and paid time off. This makes hiring flexible for you, and it gives your talent more options.
Hiring employees is a bigger commitment, and can open you up to increased liabilities and regulations. When you hire contractors overseas, your biggest risk is misclassification—but laws surrounding contractor classification are often significantly more straightforward.
The contractor life isn’t for everyone—some people want the security that being an employee often appears to provide. Though it’s rare, this does happen, and it’s one disadvantage of manage an all-contractor team.
Most countries’ contractor-employer relationship laws stipulate that the employer can’t set fixed working hours, among other things. These laws give contractors more freedom over how and when they do their work than an employee would have. In reality, however, most contractors are willing & able to work on the company’s schedule—it’s a matter of setting expectations beforehand.
If you’re hiring contractors in
Denmark
, you can pay them with Thera in a single click. You won’t need to worry about complicated wire transfers, fees, or currency conversions. We’ll take care of it all. Just make a click and your contractor will get paid in their currency of choice. This is a valuable bonus for talent in countries where the local currency is particularly weak—most people appreciate the ability to receive their payment in stronger currencies.
If you’ve read up until this point, you’ll know that it’s easier, cheaper, and more flexible to hire contractors in Denmark than employees. Still, there are valid reasons why you might want to hire employees instead. The content below is for you—we’ll cover employer taxes and obligations in Denmark
Denmark has a “concurrent holiday” system, meaning that employees can use their holiday as they earn the days each month. Employees earn 2.08 days of paid holiday every month, for a total of 25 days per year. In general, employees accrue 12.5% of your salary in holiday allowance.
The holidays begin to accumulate on September 1, and run through August 31 of the following year. Employees who wish to take days before they earn them can do so with the agreement of the employer.
Employees who were unable to take their holiday leave due to Covid-19 can postpone it to the current year.
There are 10 public holidays.
Salaried employees receive payment during sickness from employers for the first 30 days. After this period, social benefits pay employees for up to 22 weeks.
Non-salaried employees are not guaranteed paid sick leave. Any sick benefits should be stated in the employment contract.
Expecting mothers are entitled to leave of 4 weeks before birth, and 14 weeks after. Salaried employees receive 50% of their wages for this time. Employees who are covered by agreement may be entitled to full pay.
New fathers are entitled to 2 weeks’ leave which must be taken during the first 14 weeks following birth.
Following the initial 14 weeks of maternity leave, each parent has the right to take up to 32 weeks of leave. This time can be extended by either 8 or 14 weeks, however, this will decrease the amount of parental allowance received monthly. One of the parents may choose to defer between 8 to 13 weeks of leave which can be kept for a continuous period before the child is one year old.
Work-related injury leaves: Employers are covered for work accidents from contributions made to social security (ATP). Also, most employers have additional private workers compensation insurance. Work accidents should be reported no later than nine days after the first day of absence. See sick leave for time off and compensation.
None.
None.
In order to terminate an employee, sufficient reasoning must be provided. A written notice is not required but is recommended to avoid any disagreements
Under the labor law in Denmark, salaried employees are entitled to a notice period of 1-6 months, depending on the length of employment.
There is no general statutory regulation on severance pay, but salaried employees who have been in continuous employment for between 12 to 17 years are entitled to a severance payment of between 1 to 3 months’ salary. Some collective bargaining agreements also include rules on severance pay that depend on seniority.
None.
Full-time employment is 37 hours weekly. A workweek should not exceed 48 hours, including overtime.
Denmark does not have a mandatory or general overtime regulation. Rules for overtime should be stated in the collective bargaining agreement. The typical overtime pay rate is 150% of the regular pay for the first three hours, and 200% for subsequent hours, holidays, or Sunday work.
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