Hire employees in Norway

There are numerous reasons why recruiting a Norwegian employee is attractive for international companies. Norwegians are not only the happiest people in the world – according to the 2017 World Happiness Report – but the country’s workforce is also said to be one of the best-educated in the world.

This goes for both professional and language skills: There are many countries in the world where a fair share of the population speaks reasonable English but English proficiency levels in Norway are so high it is actually hard to find someone not able to communicate in English. Integrating your new recruit from Norway into your remote team should thus not be a problem.

Employers are obligated to provide their new employees with a written employment contract, regardless of the type of employment. The agreement can be drafted in a different language than Norwegian and should outline at least the following basic terms of employment:

• Identification of both parties

• Date of commencement (and employment duration as well as legal basis for temporary contracts)

• Workplace

• Job description, duties and responsibilities

• Basic salary as well as other compensation or benefits and details on payment

• Working hours and breaks

• Total number of holidays as well as holiday pay

• Notice periods for employment termination

• Probation period, if any

• Reference to collective agreements

Employment agreements in Norway may be either temporary or permanent. However, fixed-term agreements are subject to certain preliminary conditions and cannot exceed twelve months. Similar restrictions apply to part-time work for which the need must be documented in writing.

Probation Period

It is possible for employee and employer to agree on a probationary period which should, however, not exceed six months.

Working Hours and Breaks

According to the Working Hours Act, standard working hours should not exceed nine hours within one day or 40 hours within one week. However, many collective agreements stipulate reduced weekly working hours – often 37.5 hours.

Employees must have a continuous rest period of no less than eleven hours between two consecutive working days and no less than 35 hours of uninterrupted rest per week. Where possible, weekly rest should fall on a Sunday.

Overtime

Any work exceeding standard working hours counts as overtime. Employees should be paid an additional 40% of their normal wages for overtime work – up to double the usual rate for overtime work falling on a weekend. Overtime work is limited to ten hours per week and 25 hours over a four-week period.

It is common to pay employees once a month.

Minimum Wage

There is no national minimum wage in Norway. However, there are certain sectors where minimum remuneration rates are determined by collective agreements.

Sick Pay

Employers are obligated to provide sick pay for their employees during the first 16 days of sick leave. For every additional day, employees receive sick leave benefits from the Norwegian National Insurance.

Bonuses

There are no legal provisions for a 13th salary.

Employees and employers in Norway are subject to the following tax and social security contribution rates (last review February 2023):

Taxes

Employers

22%

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• 22% corporate tax rate

• 25% VAT (standard rate)

Employees

22%

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• 22% flat tax rate on individual income including state, county and municipal tax

• Plus additional tax on higher income *

Social security

Employers

16.1%

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• 14.1% of employee’s gross salary to National Insurance Scheme – might be lower depending on the region

• 2% contribution to occupational pension fund (OTP) – new in 2022

• Additional 5% national insurance on income exceeding NOK 750,000 per year (temporary)

Employees

8%

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8% of employee’s gross salary to National Insurance Scheme

Please note that the social security contributions indicated above do not necessarily reflect the actual employment costs. These may differ depending on the employment contract and due to other factors (e.g. 13th and 14th salary, health insurance allowances, accrual for severance pay, etc.).

Annual Leave

Employees in Norway are entitled to 25 days of annual leave – including Saturdays. For employees over 60, annual leave is extended by an additional week, i.e. six working days.

An employee on leave receives holiday pay which is earned during the previous year and set aside by the employer for this purpose. For employees under the age of 60, holiday pay usually equals 10.2% of their annual salary.

Up to three weeks of annual leave must be granted during the main holiday period which stretches from 1 June to 30 September. In addition, Norway observes twelve public holidays – including Easter Sunday and Whit Sunday.

Maternity Leave and Paternity Leave

In Norway, maternity leave is part of the parental leave entitlement. For the mother, leave can start up to 12 weeks before birth. The first 6 weeks after birth are also exclusively reserved for the mother. Thereafter, the mother can take further parental leave in line with the statutory regulations for parental leave (see next chapter).

Two weeks of additional leave must be granted to the mother’s companion on the child’s birth. Following amendments to the rules on paternity leave, the two weeks of paternity leave now count out of the totaal parental leave entitlement and are paid.

Parental Leave

Mother and father have the same rights to take parental leave. Depending on the chosen remuneration level, parental leave in Norway is either 49 weeks (100% paid) or 59 weeks (80% paid) long. 15 weeks are exclusively reserved for each parents. Maternity leave is included in the mother’s parental leave entitlement – plus an additional 3 weeks to be taken before birth. The remaining 16 weeks can be divided between the parents as they whish.

Additional Leave and Benefits

Upon completion of the first twelve months of parental leave, parents can take another 12 months of leave to care for their child. However, this leave will be unpaid.

In addition to employment termination by default – i.e. in case of a fixed-term contract – resignation and mutual agreement, Norwegian law recognises the following grounds for employment termination (non-exhaustive list):

• breach of employment contract and gross misconduct

• redundancy, downsizing or any other business-related reason

• long-term illness – under certain circumstances

• continuous underperformance or incapability

The length of the notice period depends on the employee’s length of service and age:

• during probation period: 14 days

• less than five years of service: one month regardless of employee’s age

• between five and ten years of service: two months regardless of employee’s age

• more than ten years of service: between three months for employees under 50 and six months for employees over 60

The maximum notice period for employees wishing to resign from their post is three months. No notice is required in case of a summary dismissal due to gross misconduct or breach of contract. There are no statutory regulations regarding severance pay in Norway.