How to use IDA’s salary tools

The salary calculator, salary statistics and the company statistics are updated every year with information from members. The salary tools are indispensable when negotiating pay for your first job. However, they are also useful if you are to negotiate your salary, change jobs, or if you just want to make sure you are being paid enough.

Read the salary statistics for the big picture

The salary statistics were last updated on 8 December 2021. They are a collection of information about IDA members’ pay conditions and they are useful to form a quick overview of salary levels. However, as the tables have been grouped according to one criterion at a time, e.g. education, sector or region, they are less detailed than the salary calculator, which will be updated on 10 December 2021.

For example, if you graduated in computer science, IT or software in 2010, you may well beat the average salary for all members of IDA with the same background in the salary statistics, but this figure does not take into account variables such as type of job or personnel responsibilities.

The salary statistics are based on information from more than 26,000 privately employed members and on information about members employed by the state from the Agency for Modernisation and municipalities and regions. The analysis department at IDA has previously compared the salary statistics with similar statistics from the Confederation of Danish Industry, and the conclusion was that the results are largely identical. If you are in a negotiation situation, you can be confident that the figures are not just wishful thinking.

See the company statistics for pay levels in specific companies 

The IDA company statistics were also updated on 8 December 2021. Using these, you can zoom in on individual companies employing more than five members of IDA. This means that you can compare pay levels at your workplace with a competing company, for example.

The results of the company statistics are shown as an indexed figure in which information from the IDA members in the company are compared with the average for people with the same education and length of service. If a company has an index of more than 100, staff at the company as a whole have higher salaries than the average.

Use the salary calculator for a detailed salary estimate

The salary calculator will be updated on around 15 December 2021. It is based on the same data as the salary statistics, but you can select variables so that it calculates a more accurate gross salary for your profile. For example, this could take account of your education, the type of job, your seniority and where you live. The more variables you choose, the more accurate the result. 

However, you should note that the salary varies considerably for the same profile, and consequently it makes sense to consider the average salary and the fractiles for the selected profile, so that you get an idea of the variation. 

You can also make your own online tables in which you can sort by type of job and one or two other parameters before exporting the results as a PDF file or an Excel spreadsheet.

How much you should expect in start salary as a recent graduate

Every year, IDA sets an indicative minimum salary for newly graduated members employed in the private sector. It is calculated on the basis of the average pay for the most recent year group compared with the expected price developments for the year to come.

IDA’s two indicative minimum salary levels for 2022 are:

• MSc in Engineering, MSc and other members with a long-cycle higher education qualification: DKK 41,900
• Bachelor of Engineering, BSc’s and other members with a medium-cycle higher education qualification: DKK 39,500
• Read about what affects salary determination.