Hello everyone. I'm coming over from the Danish subreddit r/denmark because we've seen an influx of hopeful Americans hoping to immigrate to our small pearl in the north. Thanks and all of that, but I thought i'd lay out some facts and fix a few common misconceptions about Danish Society which you might want to consider before handing over your passports.
Q: Who are you?
A: Well, I'm a Dane, I was born in Denmark and have lived here for almost 3 decades. I'm an adult, at this point. I've taken a masters degree in Denmark, worked in Denmark for almost 2 decades and know how to operate a google search query.
Q: Okay, whatever. Is it true Denmark's work culture is the best in the world?
A: I MEAN. Depends on your definition, but let's dive into some facts for a start.
Work Week
First of all, the common danish workweek is structured around a 36 hour work week, personally I work 40 hours a week, I have friends who work less – but the very common to find workweek is balanced around 36 hours with paid overtime. This is not a number protected by danish law. Meaning that companies who exceed these working hours are not required by law to compensate for overtime. Most do (because of someting we'll get into later) But some don't.
Union Normalization
Pretty much every line of work in Denmark has union representation. It is incredibly common in Denmark to be represented by both a union and a danish 'a-kasse' though the two are not interchangeable; A union more often does what you guys usually think a union worries about, an A kasse is a workers insurance which pays out money if you go unemployed, have to leave work for an extended period of time, take a sabbatical or whatever. See it like a union worries about you WHILE you are working and an A kasse worries about you when you ARENT working.
I can tell all the budding middle managers reading this are quivering in their boots, but I can inform you that the unions do not play a major role in day-to-day worklife. Unless you diddle your employees daily, but in which case the unions are kinda… The last thing you should be thinking about. Please stop.
Minimum Wage
Denmark actually doesn't have a legal minimum wage per se. Minimum wages in Denmark are called 'overenskomster' which roughly translates to 'everyones income' or something. It's a weird word. WHAT IT MEANS IS; Different fields of work have different minimum wages, a taxi driver has a different minimum wage to a waitress because they're two different fields that might require different educations, certifications, safety standards and etc. So, this is where those unions come in. More often than not, they negotiate with department of work representatives along with industry people what the 'overenskomst' should be for that field of work. So, buyer beware. A doctors minimum wage is significantly higher than a waiters.
Equal Pay.
Denmark has laws in place which strictly prohibits descrimination of genders in the workplace. Does this mean it still happens? Of course it does. Recent studies show that 9 out of 10 instances, men earn up to 12.2% more than women do for the same work. This, obviously, isn't OK. It is a dying practice, and the numbers have been dropping -but- it still happens.
My experience is that since it isn't taboo in Denmark to talk to your coworkers and your union what you make in a month, women who are compensated less for the same work can very often get an equal to pay raise from their managers if they confront them with hard evidence. Obviously, that's good but it shouldn't happen in the first place.
Paternal Leave.
Denmark has extensive paternal leave laws which require a leave which guarantees re-employment in the same position or equivalent to any parent who goes on leave. As of writing this post – this is as follows.
4 weeks before birth, the Mother can start her paternal leave.Date of birth, the mother and the father can take up to 2 weeks of leave.After those two weeks, the couple can split 26 weeks as they see fit. Mother can take all 26 while Father works, or the other way around – or no leave, or 13 weeks leave each. Any combination is allowed.After those 26 weeks have expired, the father can take up to 9 weeks of leave and the mother can take up to 9 weeks of leave.
It seems a little wacky, but that's the new 2022 system. This is paid paternal leave, you will get a salary compensation based on your income when starting the paternity leave. If you did not have an income, you will get welfare + a child caring bonus.
Sexism in the Workplace.
It's obviously still a thing, it's a shitty thing that it's still a thing, but it seems a lot less prevalent than it does in many other parts of the world. Sorry ladies. We're trying our best. A unique problem to Denmark is due to the high paternal leave required by law, a lot of employers forego hiring young women (age 20-28) because of the chance that they might be pregnant or planning to be soon so they have to leave for a year and get paid for it. The new '2022 system' takes away shared paternal leave weeks and gives them to the father in an attempt to offset this bias. Still too early to tell if it works, but it's an idea.
Q: Okay… What about danish society? How's that?A: Being a heterosexual white man from a middle class family, I know my view is probably scewed, but I'll try to be objective. SO:
Taxes
As you probably have heard by now, Denmark has some pretty heavy taxes. At my job, I earn what's equivalent to half a million danish crowns a year, that rounds out to about 83k USD a year. I got this job fresh out of university with a masters degree in software engineering. This is considered a well paying first year job in Denmark, for the field. Anyway – back to taxes.My income tax is 39%, plus any amount earned above 500k danish a year will be extra taxed a 12% of the extra amount earned. That *is* a lot, it doesn't 'sound like a lot but actually' it's a lot. BUT.What don't I have to pay for? Well. I don't have to pay for healthcare, education, no state taxes, city taxes and etc etc. There might be a few extras here and there, like our church tax which is 1.5% of your income – but universally, these two numbers comprise the only amount of money you're required to pay to the state.
We do also have many tax rebates, such as transportation to work being compensated to an extent, losses on stocks in the Danish stock exchange, expenses related to work trips and such.
We also have extensive taxes on cars and gas, which means a car often costs twice to three times as much as it does in the states. Same number with gas. Though often the taxes on the car are significantly lower if it is considered an eco friendly vehicle (AKA gas efficient) and doesn't weigh very much, so. Big trucks are expensive.
Social Benefits.
Due to the pretty extensive tax plan of Denmark as mentioned above, we also have a very broad social safety net. This includes a monthly welfare check for unemployed adults which is usually equivalent to a 'lower income job' such as school teacher. This check is often slightly lower than these positions to encourage people to seek employment, though it's very manageable to live off of – though you won't exactly be saving money for a rainy day.
Being a parent myself, I've also enjoyed a danish social benefit which is the child contribution, which is about 900 USD payed out to the parents of a child below the age of 18 (If the child doesnt have an income of their own) every quarter to help paying for the many expenses a child can bring. This amount is regulated based on parental income, but has a hard floor of about 900 USD. This will also be paid out if both parents are working.
Those are just the benefits off the top of my head, many of these benefits are regulated to be greater if you're a low income family, have special needs children or for some reason have practical cause of getting more financial support from the state.
Education
Yes, education is free. All the way to a PH.D. You are compensated for taking an education equivelant to about 1100 USD a month. This is the same amount no matter what you are studying to be. This amount is also deducted based on your personal income. So if you have a side hustle and earn more than a set amount, you get deducted in these benefits. THIS IS ONLY FOR DANISH AND EUROPEAN CITIZENS.
Free tuition and paid education is a pillar of danish society, it means no matter your social class you're able to become a doctor, a lawyer or whatever you'd want to be. This is great, if you ask me – but it does come with the problem that A LOT of academics are without work because we as a society simply have too many.
LGBTQ+ Rights
Denmark has no laws prohibiting gender reassignment, gay marriage, gay adoption or gay-person employment. Matter of fact we have a lot of laws which ensures the safety of these rights. This being said… We do have some legacy problems. Homosexual individuals aren't allowed to donate blood in Denmark due to a reactionary law passed in the 80s which rides on the trope that gay men are more likely to have AIDS. This hasn't been reversed yet, I don't know why, nobody is talking about it. It's weird.LGBTQ+ people are generally widely accepted in danish society, as a natural attraction, chemical compositional… Thing. The 'it's a choice' mentality is something that's definitely dying off more than spreading and it is considered political suicide in Danish politics to be anti-gay.
Racism
Denmark has it's fair share of racism and racist bias. Primarily a Christian nation of white people, and having to deal with the 2015 immigration crisis along with the refugees from the war in Syria, there's a strong bias in Danish society against muslim men and women. They are more likely to be stopped by police, more likely to go to jail for menial crimes, more likely to live in a low income neighborhood, etc and etc. THAT being said. The structural racism that's in effect in America is completely, totally, ridiculously putting our garden variety racism to shame. It's bad, it's really bad, that muslim men and women can't live in relative peace and equality in large parts of the country -but-… it's not as bad as you guys. Sorry, not sorry.
Personal Rights.
Danish citizens have the same rights as guaranteed Americans under the constitution. Except the right to carry arms. Guns are heavily restricted in Denmark, it's almost completely impossible to own a semi automatic anything, owning a hunting rifle or a shotgun requires an extensive hunting license course and police approval. They are required to be locked in a safe when not in use and shotguns are limited to 2 shells at all times. That's just some of the weapon laws that I know off the top of my head, at least.
State bureaucracy
Denmark is the most digitized state in the world. Any and all interactions you have with the Danish government or any state entities is via secured mail 'digital post' using a unique two factor authentication system 'mitID'. This is everything from seeing the deed to your land, requesting paternal leave, filling your taxes, reporting income, LITERALLY ANYTHING.
A not so well known fact about Denmark is when the government change, from one party to another all the bureaucrats stay the same, they just take on new management. This means that the danish state is actually pretty efficient because you don't have to swap out the entire house of cards, just because a new person is the boss. Obviously, this comes with some baked in downsides – but Denmark remains the least corrupt country in the world – so yay.
Elections
Denmark has a multiple party representative democracy. Every 5 years or so, we go to the voting booth to elect candidates from one of MANY political parties, which we believe represent our best interests. The elected officials can form coatlition governments and are awarded power and ministries based on how many votes they received. Danish elections have an average participation percentage of 96% over the last 25 years.
That's all I had for now. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask google or me. Google probably knows more than me.
Vi ses.