Palmas26

Hello everybody.
I just joined this forum and I would like to get some information about working and living in Denmark. I hope somebody living in Denmark is able to answer me:
I am moving to Copenhague in august, I am a telecom engineer with 3 years of experience. I am going to do a couple of interviews next months and I do not know what I can expect as salary...
- I have heard that 35K danish kronor is good. Could anybody confirm?
- In addition I know that taxes are around 50% but public services are excellent. ??
- About renting an appartment (2 rooms, centric). Is 8000 DKK / month a good price??

Thank you in advance. All the information about working in Denmark will be welcome!!

stoobee1

According to xe.com 35K DKK is around EUR 4,695.91 per month. Well that's more than my gross Dutch salary but then I pay less tax. If you take home 2.3K net then I think that's rather low judging by the cost of everything from supermarket goods, restaurants to cars (up to 180% tax!).

From tourist only experience of Copenhagen I was genuinely shocked at the price of everything in Denmark in general. Even outside Copenhagen is expensive too. I paid EUR 40 for a meal for myself in an Indian restaurant. Granted 10 euro of that was for one beer I found it cheaper to go out in Malmo across the bridge. The swedish crown is no longer as strong as it used to be. Indeed it is now an option to live in Malmo and commute everyday. Housing is cheap. It's not a bad city either.

I guess overall the cost of going out may well be comparable to London. I expect the accommodation is cheaper though.

Palmas26

Hello stoobee1,

thank you for your answer. I fully agree with you about cost of living there. However, according to
http://www.workindenmark.dk/Working_conditions/0/4/0
the lowest salary for a MSc holder is 28800 DKK, (3860 euros), that is nothing if you take 50% off!!!

About living in Malmo and conmute everyday, it is an option but I wonder if is really worth it to cross the bridge everyday + metro/train to your company (time is also important)

Accomodation is around 1000 euro/month for a 2 room apptment. not so bad

I hope somebody can give me a hint about what I can expect there

stoobee1

The site you mentioned also has something about a 25% tax rate (max 3 years) for key people or researchers...

http://www.workindenmark.dk/Taxation/0/4/0

That would certainly help if you're entitled. There is something similar here in the Netherlands called the 30% ruling which allow foreign recruited expats to take 30% of the income free of tax. This can last up to 10 years.

Good luck anyway!