What Is the Minimum and Average Salary in Norway? [2024 Answer]
If you are planning to move to Norway, it’s essential to know the minimum wage in the country, as well as the average salary you might earn here.
And this is exactly what we’re going to talk about today. There are many details to consider for the big picture, but if you don’t want to go through that all, here is what you should know:
- The minimum salary in Norway in 2024, after tax, is around €1,760 / month (20,000 NOK)
- The average salary in Norway in 2024 is around €2,900 / month after tax (33,000 NOK)
It’s easy to see that, when it comes to the minimum guaranteed income, Norway is very attractive. And it indeed has some of the highest salaries in the European Economic Area – Norway is not part of the EU.
In terms of average salaries, Norway is always towards the top of various charts, similar to salaries in Sweden or those in Denmark.
Sure, the higher salaries to come hand in hand with a higher cost of living, but in the end they even out well and even on minimum wages in Norway, you could still live a decent life.
With all these in mind, let’s get a bit more in depth below.
What is the minimum wage in Norway in 2024?
Norway has a very complicated approach to the minimum guaranteed income for employees. They regulate various minimum wages in 9 industries, with everything else being left for worker unions to decide.
A very simplified overview of the situation would be this:
The minimum monthly salary in Norway is around €1,760/month (or 20,000 NOK), which represents the take home, after tax salary.
However, these vary a lot from industry to industry. As mentioned above, there are 9 industries with state-set minimum hourly wages:
- Building
- Cleaning
- Accommodation, Serving and Catering
- Ship & Shipyard industry
- Agriculture & Horticulture
- Fishing Industry
- Electricity
- Freight transport
- Passenger transport
You can get an updated look at the rates (and also the plethora of extra conditions for each industry) over at Arbeidstilsynet (website in Norwegian, though).
The minimum wage that one can get paid in Norway depends not only on their level of education, experience, skills or implication, but also on the city where they’re going to work or the industry.
All in all, it’s safe to take the simplified version as a starting point and assume a minimum salary of around 20,000 NOK per month in 2024, after tax.
What is the average salary in Norway in 2024?
In 2024, the take home average wages in Norway are somewhere around 33,000 NOK per month (€2,900), higher than they were in the last quarter of 2023.
Fortunately, unlike Norway’s approach to minimum wages, the average earnings expected in the country are not overly complicated.
While the industry does matter, just like the city you’re located in matters, values are set by demand and the strong economy of the country.
Salaries have grown steadily over the past few years, despite the fact that these years were challenging, with high inflation.
The unemployment percent also rose significantly from less than 4% in January 2020 to 5.4% by the end of the year. And it is currently hovering around 5%, but 2024 could be a difficult year for companies and more layoffs could follow.
All in all, a person earning the average salary in Norway can definitely live a good life in the country.
And if you’re planning to settle in there, you can learn more about Norwegian women or Norwegian men. Because splitting the bills (especially rental costs) is always a great idea!
Conclusion
Even though there is mostly no minimum wage regulated in Norway, salaries are fairly negotiated to offer decent money to minimum wage employees.
To these monetary benefits, we can also add the great public service, civic participation, life expectancy, high level of education and the fact that the country is a really safe one overall. Not to mention that the Norwegian culture is really impressive too.
The average wage in Norway is also quite high in comparison to other countries in Europe, meaning that if you want to relocate, here would be a great place to do it.
If you have any other useful information regarding the labor market, salaries or working systems in Norway in 2024, feel free to share them with us so we can all get a better and more authentic picture of how a career in Norway looks like.
Leave your observations in the comment section below – I’m looking forward towards reading them all!
Additional source: SSb.no