Denmark lowers work-permit salary floor by nearly 20,000 kroner for select nations

Denmark’s parliament approved a revised work-permit scheme that cuts the required minimum salary from 552,000 kroner to 322,000 kroner annually for applicants from 16 designated countries. The list includes the USA, United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Japan, Australia, Canada, India, Brazil, Malaysia, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova, subject to any special foreign-policy exclusions. Candidates must also be citizens of a listed nation and be hired by companies that obtain certification from the immigration agency SIRI, with the certification window opening in December 2026.

Certified firms are obliged to enter a collective bargaining agreement with a trade union to guard against lower-wage competition. The measure, first introduced by the previous administration, survived a parliamentary vote after the governing coalition was re-formed following Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s call for a March election. Projections estimate the change could bring about 550 new labour migrants per year by 2030, a modest share of Denmark’s existing foreign workforce of over 400,000.