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WORKING IN NORWAY

Working in Norway: Do foreigners get paid less than Norwegians?

Norwegians typically earn higher average and median wages than their foreign counterparts, with some professional fields having large discrepancies.

Published: 4 August 2023 13:33 CEST
Updated: 5 March 2024 11:22 CET
Pictured are crowds in central Oslo
Figures show that immigrants in Norway make less money than their Norwegian colleagues. Pictured are crowds in central Oslo Photo by Svein Sund on Unsplash

One of the biggest factors drawing people to Norway is the lure of high wages, good working conditions, and an excellent work-life balance.

Last year, more than 16,408 nationals from the EEA registered moving to Norway for work reasons, while 11,143 non-EEA nationals applied for work permits.

The average monthly wage in Norway is 56,360 kroner (4,914 euros, 4,205 pounds and 5,329 dollars). The very highest earners pull up average wages. The median income is closer to 50,660 kroner per month.

As many will be aware, though, there are always discrepancies in what people make based on factors such as their gender or where they come from.

For example, while Norway is considered a world leader in gender equality, a gender pay gap still exists. Norway has a gender parity of 88.3 percent.

This means that men earn 12.7 percent more than women do in Norway. While this figure will disappoint many, it makes Norway one of the top countries in the world for parity.

READ ALSO: Is there a gender wage gap in Norway?

Unfortunately for the tens of thousands of immigrants who move to Norway for work, they can typically expect to earn less than their local counterparts.

The average wage of an immigrant in Norway was 50,270 kroner per month in 2023 compared to 58,190 kroner for other residents, figures from national data agency Statistics Norway show. In more basic terms, it means that on average, immigrants can expect to make 15 percent less than other residents.

One of the largest discrepancies in earnings is for those in managerial and executive positions. Norwegians with managerial positions make, on average, 83,170 kroner per month. Comparatively, immigrants with management roles make 74,170 kroner per month.

However, there are some instances where immigrants earn a slightly higher monthly wage. Immigrants in the academic sector in Norway take home 65,450 kroner, while other residents make 63,410 kroner.

Out of the nine occupational groups listed by Statistics Norway, only immigrants classed as academics made more than Norwegians.

The other occupational groups included in the figures are college and military professions, office occupations, sales and service professions, farmers and fishermen, tradesmen, process and machine and transport workers, and cleaners and domestic workers .

Across these various occupations, immigrants could expect to earn between five and 10 percent less on average.

When it comes to the median, immigrants in Norway take home 44,620 kroner compared to 52,150 for other residents. In median terms, the pay gap between foreigners and Norwegians is essentially the same (16 percent) as the average wage.

A gender wage gap exists between both foreign-born men and women and Norwegian men and immigrant women.

Men and women from immigrant backgrounds had a higher wage parity (around 91 percent) than all men and women combined (88.3 percent). Although, the gender wage gap between Norwegian men and foreign women was higher, with a parity gap of 77 percent.

The figures from Statistics Norway also show that Norwegian women earn 11 percent more than foreign women. Men from other countries make 17 percent less than men from Norway.

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OSLO

Is Oslo’s project to speed up work permits on track?

The City of Oslo aims to cut work permit processing times in the capital down from nine months to just three days. The Local has contacted authorities to update readers on the latest developments.

Published: 6 May 2024 10:09 CEST
Is Oslo's project to speed up work permits on track?

For years, Norway has been grappling with a shortage of skilled professionals, notably in the technology and IT sectors.

Recognising the need to address this talent gap, The City of Oslo and other partners launched a pilot project in 2023 called Kompetansespor (Competence Track).

The primary goal was to reduce the lengthy wait times for skilled workers to get work permits from around nine months to three days.

READ ALSO: What’s next for Oslo’s plan to slash work permit waiting times?

But what is the current status of the project? And is the new super-fast work permit process any closer to becoming a reality?

How the project has evolved in 2024

Since its inception, Competence Track has evolved into a more ambitious project that goes beyond just cutting work permit times.

The project’s focus has shifted towards new goals, which mostly revolve around exploring the use of a “digital wallet” to streamline the immigration process.

To make this happen, partners involved in the project, such as the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), will collaborate with other key stakeholders from the governmental, municipal, and private sectors.

READ MORE: How Norway’s permanent residence rules have been tweaked

As the UDI explains in a document seen by The Local, a digital wallet refers to “an electronic application or platform that allows users to securely store, manage, and share digital identity credentials and other types of digital data,” which plays a “central role in handling digital evidence or verifiable credentials in a digital ecosystem.”

The wallet allows relevant authorities to access the holder’s paperwork, rather than having documents and credentials stored separately across several portals. 

New goals

The main aim for 2024 is to develop and explore an efficient and user-friendly process flow that can support the immigration of skilled workers to Norway.

According to a document that the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) shared with The Local, other goals for the year include creating a prototype to test the efficacy of the digital wallet in improving immigration processes, investigating the feasibility of pre-qualifying employers to speed up the immigration process, and showcasing how collaboration across sectors can create better services for users.

The project remains committed to reducing administrative burdens, processing times, and information exchange accuracy, as well as preparing Norway for future challenges related to global mobility and digitalisation.

Meanwhile, the Oslo Business Region writes on its website that additional target groups such as students and family members of work permit applicants would be included in the fast track residence permit scheme. 

From the information available at the time of writing, it seems that project will still revolve around Oslo.

Gustav Try, an advisor at the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), told The Local that the UDI’s Department of Managed Migration is currently working on a new test phase called “Pilot 2.0”.

“We are currently working on Pilot 2.0, but it is not finalised. The plan is to pilot it on selected students at the University of Oslo (UiO) in August. We are also considering piloting it on skilled workers, including UiO employees, throughout the autumn,” the department said.

Back in September, Thea Ullhaug Pope, senior content developer for the City of Oslo, told The Local that one of the long-term ambitions of the project is to try and get the scheme adopted by other regions and then nationally.

However, while the Competence Track project continues to progress, it seems unlikely that the initial ambition of reducing work permit waiting times from nine months to three days will be achieved on a mass scale anytime soon.

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