Employment contracts in Denmark: the 15 things the law says you must write down

Every employee whose planned or actual working time is more than 3 hours a week on average over 4 consecutive weeks (§ 1, stk. 1), and every employee with no guaranteed amount of paid work, such as a worker called in when needed (§ 1, stk. 3). That includes part-timers, students and employees under 18. Hours with other companies in the same group count towards the average. Seafarers have their own act, and a collective agreement may replace the Act's rules where it covers the same ground (§ 1, stk. 4-5).

Citizens from outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland need a residence and work permit before the first working day. That is a separate process at the Danish Immigration Service (nyidanmark.dk); the English portal lifeindenmark.borger.dk explains the steps.

The Act lists the items in § 3, stk. 2, and Danish contracts, advisers and the free checker on this site use the same numbers. Items marked “if applicable” are only required when the situation exists. Nr. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12 are due within 7 calendar days of the first working day; nr. 6, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15 within 1 month (§ 3, stk. 1).

Nr. 8 is the one foreign templates most often miss: the contract must say how much paid leave the employee is entitled to, which in Denmark means holiday, pay during sickness and pay during parental leave. One Danish wording, with a translation:

Changes to any of the items must be given in writing no later than the day they take effect (§ 5). A Danish-language walk-through of every item is in Lov om ansættelsesbevis.

The Salaried Employees Act (funktionærloven) covers employees who mainly do shop or office work, technical or clinical assistance, or supervise others, for more than 8 hours a week on average (§ 1). The status follows from the work, not from the title, and not from whether the pay is monthly or hourly. A funktionær gets by law:

• notice periods of 1 to 6 months from the employer (§ 2), 1 month from the employee,
• full pay during sickness (§ 5),
• probation of at most 3 months with 14 days' notice, if agreed (§ 2, stk. 5),
• half pay during maternity leave for the employee who gives birth (§ 7),
• severance pay after 12 and 17 years' service (§ 2 a).

Manual and skilled workers, such as a carpenter, a cook, a cleaner or a driver, are not covered. Their notice comes from the contract or a collective agreement, and no act gives them a minimum notice; if the contract is silent, it is uncertain what applies. During sickness they get sickness benefit (sygedagpenge) rather than full pay: the employer pays it for the first 30 days when the employee has worked for you for 8 weeks and at least 74 hours, then the municipality takes over. The Danish guide Funktionær eller ej? (in Danish) walks through the test.

Probation may last at most 6 months, and in a fixed-term job at most a quarter of the term (ansættelsesbevisloven § 6). For a salaried employee the short 14 days' notice only works inside the first 3 months (funktionærloven § 2, stk. 5), so a longer probation gives you no shorter notice. The employer's notice to a salaried employee grows with service, counted on the day the employment would end:

Notice runs to the end of a month and must be received before the month it starts in. The employee's own notice is 1 month (§ 2, stk. 6). A dismissal of a salaried employee must be in writing (§ 2, stk. 7), and the employee may ask for the reason in writing. The Danish word opsigelse covers both a resignation and a dismissal. After 1 year's service a dismissal must have a fair reason (§ 2 b), and some employees are protected: dismissal because of pregnancy, parental leave or a request for leave is prohibited and the burden of proof is yours (ligebehandlingsloven §§ 9 and 16), and the same goes for disability, age and the other grounds in the Act on Discrimination. The Danish notice calculator covers salaried and hourly staff: Beregn opsigelsesvarsel (in Danish), and Prøvetid explains probation.

Holiday. The Holiday Act gives 2.08 days of paid holiday per month of employment, 25 days a year, earned in a holiday year from 1 September to 31 August and taken in the 16 months from that 1 September (§§ 5-6). Salaried staff keep their pay during holiday plus a 1 % holiday supplement (§ 16); hourly staff get 12.5 % holiday pay set aside, usually through FerieKonto (§ 16, stk. 2 and § 31). See Ferie med løn eller feriegodtgørelse (in Danish).

Sickness. Salaried employees get full pay (funktionærloven § 5). Others get sickness benefit from the employer for the first 30 days, then from the municipality, and the employer who pays salary can claim the benefit back. See Sygedagpenge: refusion (in Danish).

Parental leave. Each parent has 24 weeks of leave with state benefits after the birth, 11 of them reserved for that parent, plus 4 weeks before the birth for the mother. You pay salary only where the law (half pay to a salaried mother for up to 18 weeks), a collective agreement or the contract says so, and you can claim the benefit and a supplement from Barsel.dk back. See Barsel for arbejdsgivere (in Danish).

Working hours. At most 48 hours a week on average over 4 months, overtime included (arbejdstidsloven § 4), 11 hours' rest in every 24, and since 1 July 2024 every employer must record each employee's daily working time (§ 4 b). Overtime pay is not set by law; it comes from the contract or a collective agreement.

A collective agreement is not automatic. It applies if your company is a member of an employers' association that has signed one, or if you sign an accession agreement with a union. Where one applies, it sets pay scales, pension, overtime, notice for hourly staff and more, and the contract must name it (item 14). Without one there is no minimum wage, no mandatory pension and no overtime rate, only what you write in the contract. Many Danish employees will ask whether you have one; the honest answer is fine either way, as long as the contract then says what applies instead.

• English is allowed. The Act requires the information in writing, not in Danish. Use a language the employee understands. Danish courts work in Danish, so a translation can be required in a dispute, and most Danish employees and their unions will expect a Danish text.
• An electronic signature is valid. No form is prescribed, and an electronic signature cannot be refused as evidence only because it is electronic (eIDAS art. 25). What matters is that you can show which text was sent, when, and that the employee accepted it. See the Danish guide on electronic signatures.
• Keep the signed copy and proof that it was sent or received (§ 3, stk. 3). Keep it for the whole employment and for the limitation period afterwards.
• Personal data. The personnel file is covered by the GDPR. Collect only what you need (name, address, CPR number for tax and pension, bank details), limit who can open it, and delete it when there is no longer a reason to keep it. The Danish Data Protection Agency's guidance on employment is the reference (datatilsynet.dk, in Danish).

Pactora's templates and contracts are in Danish. They are built on the 15 items above with automatic checks, the employee signs through a link on any phone, and it is free up to 2 employees. If you need an English-language contract, Pactora is not the tool yet.

If a Danish contract is what you need, which is what most Danish employees expect, you can start for free; the app is in Danish. If you already have a contract in Danish, the free checker reads it against the 15 items in your browser: Tjek din ansættelseskontrakt. It works best on Danish text.

Work down the list before the first working day. Nothing is stored; the copy is yours.

• 1. Names and addresses of the employer and the employee (Navn og adresse) · 7 days
• 2. Place of work, or that the employee works in several places or chooses the place, plus the employer's address (Arbejdssted) · 7 days
• 3. Job title, rank, position or category, or a description of the work (Stilling eller arbejdets indhold) · 7 days
• 4. Start date (Startdato) · 7 days
• 5. Expected duration, when the job is not open-ended (Forventet varighed; fixed-term jobs only) · 7 days
• 6. For agency temps: the user companies, as soon as they are known (Brugervirksomhed; agency work only) · 1 month
• 7. Length and terms of any probation period (Prøvetid; when probation is agreed) · 7 days
• 8. The paid leave the employee is entitled to: holiday, pay during sickness, pay during parental leave (Fravær med løn) · 1 month
• 9. Notice periods for both sides, or the rules that set them (Opsigelsesvarsler) · 1 month
• 10. Pay at the start, supplements and other pay elements such as pension and benefits, and when pay is paid (Løn) · 7 days
• 11. Normal daily or weekly working hours, overtime and pay for it, and shift-change arrangements where relevant (Arbejdstid) · 7 days
• 12. If the work pattern is mostly unpredictable: that the schedule varies, the guaranteed paid hours and pay beyond them, the reference hours and days, and the minimum notice before a shift (Uforudsigeligt arbejdsmønster; unpredictable work only) · 7 days
• 13. Any right to training the employer offers (Uddannelse) · 1 month
• 14. Which collective agreements apply, and who the parties are when they are outside the company (Overenskomst) · 1 month
• 15. The social security institutions that receive contributions through the employer, such as a pension provider, and the cover the employer provides (Sociale bidrag; when the employer pays pension contributions) · 1 month