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WORKING IN NORWAY

What salary can you expect to earn in Norway?

Norway has a reputation for being a costly country with high tax levels. However, if you decide to relocate to Norway, what salary should you expect, and what will you be left with after paying taxes and other fees?

Published: 21 February 2023 10:47 CET
Updated: 29 March 2023 10:22 CEST

What is my salary after tax?

According to Statistics Norway (SSB), the average monthly earnings in Norway amount to 48,750 kroner before taxes.

As some experts claim that the median monthly earnings are a better measure of earnings than average earnings, it’s also worth noting that the median monthly earnings in Norway amount to roughly 44,150 kroner before taxes. That means that 50 percent of workers in Norway earn less, and 50 percent earn more.

According to the income tax calculator provided by talent.com for Norway, a worker in the country with a salary of 48,500 kroner before taxes would have to pay 1,157 kroner in bracket taxes, 3,880 kroner in National Insurance Scheme contributions, and 7,586 kroner in common taxes.

The calculation shows that the average tax rate would amount to 26 percent, while the marginal tax rate would total 34 percent.

Note: The marginal tax rate means that your immediate additional income will be taxed at this rate. For instance, an increase of 100 kroner in your salary will be taxed 34 kroner. Hence, your net pay will only increase by 66 kroner.

That would leave the worker in question with a net salary of 35,877 kroner. The worker needs to pay 12,623 kroner in taxes, while the employer’s tax obligations would amount to 6,839 kroner.

Thus, the total tax paid would amount to 19,462 kroner, and as both the employee and employer need to pay taxes, the real tax rate would end up at 35.2 percent, meaning that the real tax rate is actually 9.2 percent higher than what it initially seemed.

How does salary vary by age and sector?

While the average employee in Norway earns 48,750 kroner per month before taxes, generally speaking, the older you are and more experience you have, the more you earn.

So, when broken down into age categories (for all industries), the figures for 2022 (based on SSB data) are somewhat different:

0-24 years old: 33,950 kroner per month

25-29 years old: 44,850 kroner per month

30-34 years old: 49,920 kroner per month

35-39 years old: 53,400 kroner per month

40-44 years old: 56,450 kroner per month

45-49 years old: 58,500 kroner per month

50-54 years old: 59,620 kroner per month

55-59 years old: 59,450 kroner per month

60 and over: 58,190 kroner per month

Job sectors also have an impact on salary. On the Statistics Norway website, you can select your field of work to find the average salary for your role.

Here is a sample of various professions in Norway and their average monthly salaries in 2022:

Politicians: 73,530 kroner

Mathematicians and statisticians; 61,210 kroner

Geologists and geophysicists: 91,860 kroner

Nurses: 51,020 kroner

Veterinarians: 59,720 kroner

Dentists: 70,340 kroner

Pharmacists: 57,580 kroner

Chiropractors: 57,040 kroner

Primary school teachers: 49,020 kroner

Financial analysts: 70,950 kroner

Software developers: 68,380 kroner

Lawyers: 77,610 kroner

Judges: 91,030 kroner

Psychologists: 60,210 kroner

Journalists: 58,050 kroner

Mechanical engineers: 59,670 kroner

Receptionists: 46,910 kroner

Opticians: 51,270 kroner

Customs officers: 46,850 kroner

Chefs: 41,900 kroner

Waiters: 32,890 kroner

Gardeners: 37,030 kroner

Auto mechanics: 41,760 kroner

Electricians: 46,210 kroner

Truck drivers: 42,370 kroner

What comes out of your salary?

Income tax in Norway is divided into multiple components, and your employer deducts it from your monthly salary each month on behalf of the state.

Furthermore, income tax is divided into a base rate (alminnelig inntekt) and a bracket or step tax (trinnskatt), which in turn enables progressive taxation.

The base rate in Norway is set at 22 percent for most areas of the country (there are few exceptions).

The bracket or step tax entails a progressive tax rate, and it includes five different levels. You can find out more about these levels on the webpage of the Tax Administration, here.

Along with the income tax, National Insurance Scheme (folketrygden) or social security (trygdeavgift) contributions are also collected from your salary.

According to Norwegian law, all workers are entitled to holiday pay (feriepenger), which amounts to at least 10.2 percent of their earnings in the previous working year. That means that the holiday pay is accrued, i.e., collected in advance each year. You can find out more about holiday pay in Norway here.

Remember that you can always use the Norwegian Tax Administration’s tax calculator here to get a solid estimate of the taxes you will need to pay.

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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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