Hello,

I've worked across a few European and Nordic countries, and the Norwegian unpaid holiday system is quite the abomination.

In most other countries, the employer would pay for your holidays. If you are on a temporary contract, you'd need to accumulate days before to be able to consume them. Usually 2.5 days per month.

If you are on a permanent contract, you can plan and start using your days for the year pretty much a few weeks after you start. Not recommended, but possible.

Here, you get literally screwed on your first year of work. It doesn't matter if you are a foreigner or a new Norwegian graduate, you'll get poorer than you should on your first year of work in a company, and any first year of work in any other companies if you haven't managed to save. If you haven't planned carefully, you take financial risks with regular expenses, mortgages and what not.

It forces people to not take holidays on the first year and grind them to the bone. If you'd want to go on holidays, you'd need to impact your savings, and if you're just getting started, it's likely you haven't saved much yet.

Why is this system still in place when it only exists in Norway and there are much better systems in neighboring countries?

In some countries (e.g. Finland), you can even get a 13th month pay.

Why aren't the Unions working with the employers to provide a fair system for their employees?

EDIT

Issues I see from the answers:
1. Norway has "unpaid"holidays vs. Paid holidays in other countries

  1. Because of '1.', you can't take holidays in your first year, when you can in other countries.

  2. In other countries, you accumulate holiday pay at a rate of 2.5 days per month. If after 6 months of work in my first year of work, I want to take holidays, I can. I'll have 15 days available. In Norway, I have 0 until the start of year 2. That also mean I can transfer days of my first year into year 2. In Norway, they get delayed.

  3. In your first year, your salary will fluctuate if you do take holidays, which can disadvantage you financially, and encourage workers not to rest.

Once you get to year 2, you get similar rights as other countries. If you compare Norway to other countries, I do see several downsides:
1. That first year issue can be avoided.

  1. You get 5 weeks of holiday pay, compared to other countries that give you 6.

  2. You don't get a holiday bonus? 13th month

  3. Some employers will force you to take holidays at the same time of everybody else in summer. What if you don't want to and prefer to take them in low season?

If they would fix the system on the 1st year, it would be as great as any other system.

EDIT 2

From one of the answers that pointed to how tax works with holiday pay, it seems some of you are misunderstanding the tax benefit.

https://conta.no/lonn/feriepenger-skatt/

You are not getting a lower taxation if you wait 1 year or consume your holiday pay on your first year.
The only difference is when the tax was paid.
The tax for the following year is already included in your tax card for this year. You get the impression to receive more money because you already paid the tax out of your income.

In the end, you will pay as much tax and you will receive as much money.

From Skatteetaten:
"Holiday pay is always tax liable and is included in the basis when calculating tax for the income year. Generally, the tax deduction card is adjusted so that some extra tax is deducted from your regular salary payments for the rest of the year, so that tax is not actually deducted from the holiday pay upon payment."

by GrowlingOcelot_4516

17 comments

  3. It is a very, very harsh system for those who move to Norway in March, work for a month, and then get no pay.

    I also had not planned ahead or knew about it when I moved during a January, but luckily, I had enough saved up to cover me for the month at that point.

    There are several strange quirks of the salary/taxation system here, I would also throw in the half-tax before christmas as a weird one.

  4. It’s the same as in Sweden, you need to earn up your vacation so first year you usually have none.

    On the other hand most companies when it comes to qualified workers will give you a paid vacation first year as well.

  5. It works for most people, I was also a bit surprised to be docked a month’s pay the first year, but it’s up to the employees to educate themselves about the labour laws and practices of the country they migrate to.

    There’s also no such thing as a free lunch and if holidays were “earned” like on other countries, we would just end up getting paid the equivalent of 2,5 days less every month.

  6. Denmark and Sweden works the same way, although the method of how vacation is paid out is a bit different.
    But you save up vacation the exact same way

  7. The system makes it easier to change places of work since you’re not earning days off, but actual money. The first year is a bit complicated.

  8. Norway, holiday pay is an abomination… That’s quite a statement

  9. I think you and alot of The answers missing out a crusual point

    You can take out The earned up feriepenger at same year as you start. But you will be missing out on The perk – not getting deducted for tax when you wait to take it out The year after…. Ref: https://conta.no/lonn/feriepenger-skatt/

    «Dersom du mottat feriepengene året etter opptjeningsåret, er skatten allerede betalt med inntektsskatten. Hvis du mottar feriepengene samme år som de blir spart, må du betale skatt av pengene i forbindelse med feriepengeutbetalingen. Dette skyldes at du da får dobbelt så mye feriepenger som antatt når skattekortet ditt ble laget og dermed må det trekkes skatt for å unngå restskatt.»

  10. “If you are on a temporary contract, you’d need to accumulate days before to be able to consume them.”

    It basically works like this, with the two caveats that you have the option of taking the yearly vacation without earning it (but not getting paid), and that the vacation days are specifically costed out so that you can’t be cheated of them once you leave.

  11. The reason unions haven’t fought for what you describe is that they have fought for this instead. I get that sometimes it is annoying, but on the whole it is a much better deal, and that is the reason why it is like this.

    – it’s more money to holiday for, both for tax reasons and because it is a higher amount than a month of normal pay

    – it is pretty much impossible for an employer to cheat you out of it, which additionally means they have one less incentive to screw you over in other ways too

    – if you change jobs the holiday money is not affected at all, which is a great benefit for the worker

    – you can absolutely take the money out in advance (though I think if you do they are taxed).

    I get that it is confusing and annoying for an immigrant, and not ideal for someone who starts working in Norway early in the year, but assuming the worker is here to stay, they will absolutely benefit from the system in the long run. It would be really neat if we could all get money from year one too, and apparently that is a discussion that is happening.

    The information on how it works is widely available, but back when I was responsible for employees I made sure to give the people who had not worked much in Norway a heads-up just in case. Norwegian teens learn about it in school, so we mostly know about it when we start our first job – I remember the rules for feriepenger being on a test when I was about sixteen.

    So yes, the reason the unions haven’t fought against this is that they have fought for it instead. And for good reason, too.

  12. You can chose not to take vacation the first year if you don’t have vacation money saved up from the previous year.

    The whole point is that employers can’t pay out unused vacation days to abuse workers. So everyone has to take a vacation. First year can seem unfair but it’s better in the long term imo.

  13. You don’t work during the summer break, so you don’t get paid. That makes sense.

  14. Not related to the system of holiday payments, but I sure wish the unions would make a bigger point of the 5 weeks of holiday per year. It feels awfully short, and considerably less than what I’d be getting in a similar position in other EU countries!

  15. I don’t really understand your reasoning. You earn your vacation and can then take it. You have the right to take unpaid vacation the first year.

    This is only a problem at your first employer, then you will have vacation pay from your former employer.

    Who, do you think, should pay for your vacation the first year?

  16. I think the reason is simple. Unions are already aware of how poorly positioned many Norwegian employers are, and pushing for paid vacation without accumulation is hard to do without giving something back. It would be a very disruptive change to a lot of businesses, and it would mean renegotiating many of our existing employment terms and rights. In a time where Norway already is one of Europe’s least attractive countries to establish business it would not be the right moment to pick this kind of fight.

  17. I don’t see the big difference. You need to earn your vacation anyways, regardless if the balance is accrued in days or money. Since you earn your vacation in money, you don’t lose it if you change your job.

    The real issue is that some employers force everyone to take vacation in July (“fellesferie”) and if it’s your first year working you need to make some arrangements. But this is actually more of an employer/union – thing than an error on how the system with vacation pay works.

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