Claim:

McDonald’s workers in Denmark make $22 per hour and get six weeks of paid vacation.

Rating:

Rating: Mostly True

Rating: Mostly True

Context:

The minimum hourly wage, taking into account the exchange rate in December 2024, came to just under $20. But with overtime, night work, weekend work and holidays, a Danish McDonald’s employee’s earnings increase. They also enjoy several benefits, including six weeks of paid time off every year, maternity leave, pension plans and special savings.

 

For years, a rumor has circulated that McDonald’s employees in Denmark make $22 per hour and get six weeks of paid time off. The claim reappeared in December 2024 in a Facebook post with a vintage photograph of McDonald’s employees smiling and holding up trays (archived):

(Facebook user Kathy Qualls)

The starting pay for McDonald’s workers in Denmark is around $22 an hour. They also receive six weeks of paid vacation per year, life insurance, maternity leave, and a pension plan.

Some commenters replied with hostility. “So, move to Denmark,” one said. “And 60% tax rate,” said another.

The rumor was not new. In March 2021, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, posted a similar claim (archived):

At the time, Snopes addressed these claims, finding that they were mostly true. In 2021, we found McDonald’s employees in Denmark made at minimum $20 per hour and more in off-hour shifts, during overtime or on holidays. They also enjoyed six weeks of paid time off.

In Denmark, there is no mandated minimum wage, according to a government website. Instead, wages are set by collective bargaining between companies and trade unions. We contacted the 3F, the union that represents workers in the fast food industry, for an update on hourly wages and other benefits for McDonald’s employees.

Allan Boldt, a spokesman for the union, confirmed that as of December 2024, the base hourly rate for an employee at McDonald’s approached the stated rate, allowing Snopes to maintain the rating from 2021. Taking into account the exchange rate as of this writing, McDonald’s employees made 141.24 krone per hour ($19.67). Overtime was paid time and a half to double time. After 6 p.m. on weekdays, they made an extra 21.50 krone ($2.99) per hour, and on Sundays they made an extra 29.37 krone ($4.09). They earned twice the base rate on public holidays.

As the meme indicated, Danish McDonald’s workers also enjoy six weeks of paid time off per year — five of them mandated by the government, and one agreed upon during collective bargaining. They indeed benefit from a pension plan of 10% of their earnings. They also have fully paid sick leave and fully paid maternity leave.

Another benefit in Denmark is so-called “special savings,” which allows people to get extra money and choose how to allocate it. They can, for example, use it for their pension plan, or use it to pay for sick leave beyond one day, or simply use it as extra earnings. For McDonald’s employees, special savings are 8.85% of all income.

The cost of meals at McDonald’s in Denmark does not differ much from McDonald’s meals in the U.S.

For example, every six months The Economist publishes its Big Mac Index, the cost of of a Big Mac around the world. While the magazine created the index in 1986 as a way to determine whether currencies were over- or undervalued, we can use it to compare the cost of the burger.

In raw value, a Big Mac costs 0.6% less in Denmark than in the U.S. in June 2024 at current exchange rates. Taking into account gross domestic product per person, a Danish Big Mac costs 3.1% more — a far cry from the difference between the average McDonald’s average salary in the U.S. ($13.27 per hour, according to recruitment site Zip Recruiter) and the minimum hourly salary of a Danish employee, which was 48.22% more. This does not take into account the cost of living after inflation for each country.

Further, contrary to speculation in the comments on the Facebook post, the average tax rate in Denmark was not 50% or 60%. The income tax was 36% in 2023 on average for single workers, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international organization of 38 countries dedicated economic growth and building “better policies for better lives.” The average for all OECD countries was 24.9%. Meanwhile, the average income tax in Denmark was 26.7% for a married worker with two children — the third-highest in the OECD.

Sources:

Evon, Dan. ‘Do McDonald’s Workers in Denmark Make $22 an Hour?’ Snopes, 3 Mar. 2021, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/mcdonalds-workers-denmark/.

Mcdonalds Restaurant Salary. Zip Recruiter, https://www.ziprecruiter.com/Salaries/Mcdonalds-Restaurant-Salary.

‘Our Big Mac Index Shows How Burger Prices Differ across Borders’. The Economist, 20 Nov. 2024, https://www.economist.com/interactive/big-mac-index.

Taxing Wages – Denmark. OECD, https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/topics/policy-issues/tax-policy/taxing-wages-denmark.pdf.

Pay – Employment and Dismissal | Business in Denmark. https://businessindenmark.virk.dk/guidance/employment-and-dismissal/pay/. Accessed 20 Dec. 2024.

Rules and Rights — When Working in Denmark. The Danish Ministry of Employment, https://bm.dk/media/18904/rules-and-rights-when-working-in-denmark.pdf.

The Labour Market in Denmark. Confederation of Danish Employers, Danish Trade Union Confederation, and Ministry of Employment, Oct. 2021, https://bm.dk/media/19251/the-labour-market-in-denmark.pdf.

Workplace Denmark – for Posted Workers. https://workplacedenmark.dk/. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.