Dear fellow Expats and Local Danes
I am about to enter the negotiation process with a company in Aarhus next week. I am doing some research on the cost of living in Denmark for my family (age 4 and 5 months old). and tips for negotiating Danish employment contract. Any information regarding to the cost of living, Danish employment contract negotiation (such as holiday package, pension plan, bonus, 13th month, vacation money, and other secondary benefits) would be useful.
Below I have summarised an estimated cost of living based on information that I have found from forums and other resources on the internet. Please feel free to correct my finding if you think I may have over or under estimated, or if I have missed something.
The estimated prices are based on monthly expenses.
Estimate cost of living for family of 4 in Aarhus:
Rent (4 rooms furnished) - 10,000 DKK
Utilities (electricity, gas, water, garbage) - 2000 DKK
Internet - 300 DKK
Mobile phones - 500 DKK
Media license fee - 200 DKK
Grocery - 7000 DKK
Road tax (medium sized family car) - 300 DKK
Car insurance (all risk) - 500 DKK
Liability insurance - 200 DKK
Fuel - 2000 DKK
Public school (including afterschool) -3000 DKK
Day care - 3000 DKK
Sport clubs for children (football and swimming) - 1000 DKK
Total: 30,000 DKK
Based on my estimate, I would need to make at least 30,000 DKK (after tax) per month in order to get by. This would mean I would need to ask for at least 600,000 DKK per annum as salary. Do you think this is a feasible salary range for a senior mechanical engineer with 10+ years of experience.
I appreciate all your input and efforts in helping this discussion.
Kind regards,
ADO Den Haag
Cost of Living for a young family of 4 in Aarhus Denmark
This website is good for cost of living in many different countries www.numbeo.com
Hello Stumpy,
Thanks for the reply. As I mentioned in my post, I have already done some research online and did my homework. The website you have me was one of the resource that I used. After I am more interesting in other cost as well, such cost of education for children, day care services, insurance (liability, car, travel,etc), sport clubs for the kids. These are the main hidden cost that can be some what expensive. I haven't been able to find any details of these kind of information online. If you happen to know any good websites, please let me know.
Cheers,
HI ADO Den Haag,
My advice is to negotiate the compensation to be qualified for highly-paid employees tax reduction of 26% totalling 31.92%, for a period of 60 months. That is, the average monthly salary must be at least DKK 62,300( DKK 61,500 in 2015) a month after the deduction of labour market. See more here: http://www.skat.dk/skat.aspx?oId=2085185&vId=0.
As you know, the living cost in Denmark is expensive.
Good luck!
Hi
I have just seen your question, and you have already done a great job before asking your question. It will be a piece of cake to help you further.
My immediate opinion is that you have not forgotten anything. I also find the figures realistic, some of them might be a little higher, others lower. All in all, I think your figures mirror worst case.
Again, I would not suggest the estimated wages to be unrealistic.
The size of the taxes, the payment for children care, heating etc. vary from municipality to municipality.
Before looking closer at your posts, I should like to hear when the meeting will be, and if you might be interested in living in nearby municipalities as well as in Aarhus. How far from the company? Will you wife also try to find a job, or ?
I shall try to calculate the taxes if the salary will amount to 50,000 kroner a month and have a look at the normal benefits, holiday, pension etc.
As this is going to be a little more personal, I'll advise you to send me the information in a mail.
Thanks for the reply. Indeed I have been doing some homework myself from various internet forums and websites. I was not sure how realistic these values are, and wanted a second opinion from locals or expats who are currently living in Aarhus.
The particular area that I am interested is in the North East region of Aarhus, say cycling distance to Lystrup, as that's where my work will be. We are also considering to stay away from the city centre as we have young children and prefer less chaotic city life and but more green parks and sports activities. There are so many information regarding extra curriculum activities, such as swimming lessons, sport clubs, or afterschool activities.
My wife will be a full time housewife when we move to Denmark, at the same time she will probably take lesson to learn some Danish and be the play the soccer mum role. We still have a 5 months old daughter which need full time care. Perhaps she will start to look do some part time work after a few years.
As for taxes, I have done some rough estimation myself based on some formulas I have found online. It is a rough estimation and I hope I will not find other surprises once I am there.
Is there an e-mail that I can contact you? I still have questions regarding Danish contract negotiation, and relocation packages. Many Danes have told me that people don't usually do re-negotiation. However, I think this is not the case for expats, especially when you have time consider the moving costs, current mortgage on our house and rental price in Aarhus. I don't want to end up paying all these costs on my own. This is one of my major concern!
Kind regards,
ADO
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