Salary
How to use IDA’s salary tools
If you're to negotiate your current salary or change jobs, it is an advantage to know what others like you earn. You can use IDA's salary tools to compare your salary to those of other members.
The salary tools have different benefits and limitations. By using them all, you'll get the most precise overview - and the best foundation for your next salary negotiation. On this page, you can learn how to:
- Find the general salary level for your profile with IDA's Salary Statistics and the salary level for a specific company in IDA's Company Statistics
- Calculate a more nuanced salary level with IDA's Salary Calculator
- Find the value of factors such as industry and position type with the Web tables
- Compares employment terms at different workplaces with IDA's guide to employment terms
- Use the results from the salary tools for your salary interview
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. 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. However, the salary statistics can neither give you a definite answer to what you should be paid or guarantee that you can expect to receive a particular amount.
Method 1: Use IDA's Salary Statistics and IDA's Company Statistics
Find the salary levels for professionals with your profile
In IDA's Salary Statistics you can find the overall salary level for your profile.
You do this by looking in IDA's Salary Statistics to see what an IDA member with your education and seniority gets paid. It is a good idea to look at both the average salary and the 50% fractile for the profile you have chosen. The average salary can be distorted by very high individuel salaries - especially if there are only a few IDA members with the chosen profile. The 50% fractile, on the other hand, shows the salary level for the IDA members who are in the middle of the field.
However, you know your value best yourself, and if you are one of the best and highest performing employees in your field, you should look at the 75% or 90% fractile.
Find your profile in IDA's salary statistics
Find an employer's salary level
Once you have formed an idea of what other IDA members with your profile earn, you should investigate whether a company has a high or low salary level. Even within the same industry, companies can have very different salary levels.
You can find those differences with IDA's Company Statistics.
In IDA's Company Statistics you will find an index figure for all companies where a minimum of five employees have shared information about their salary. The index figure is calculated by comparing the responses from the selected company's employees with the average for all IDA members with the same education and seniority in IDA's Salary Statistics.
If the company has an index number of 110, it is a sign that the general salary level in the company is higher than the average salary level, and then you can perhaps raise your expectations a little.
When you use IDA's Company Statistics, you can find an index figure for the company's salary level. You can select the tab "without managers" and "with managers", which is useful because individual managers can distort the index figure if they receive a very high salary. Conversely, you can get an idea of what the managers get paid by selecting the "With managers" tab.
Compare different companies in IDA's Company Statistics
Method 2: Use IDA's Salary Calculator
In IDA's salary calculator, you can select variables that influence your salary, including staff responsibilities, additional education, or travel days. In this way, it calculates a more accurate gross salary for your profile compared to the salary statistics.
The model behind IDA's salary calculator calculates a value for the individual variables, but is is important to keep in mind that it is a calculated result.
In reality, there can be large individual differences that IDA's Salary Calculator cannot take into account. A PhD education can, for example, increase your salary a lot if it is relevant to the job you are employed in. But a PhD education can also be insignificant for your salary if it has no benefits at all relevance to the position in which you are employed.
When using IDA's Salary Calculator, it is a good idea to look at both the average salary and the 50% fractiles. The average salary can be distorted by individual high salaries, while the 50% fractile shows the salary level for the IDA members in the middle of the field.
However, you know your value best yourself, and if you are one of the best and highest performing employees in your field, you should look at the 75% or 90% fractile.
Method 3: Use the web tables
You will find the Web tables in the tab next to IDA's salary calculator on Mit IDA.
In the Web tables, you can select two or three variables to get an impression of the salary level for more specific profiles - you can, for example, see how choosing different job types or industries affects the salary.
The web tables have fewer variables than the Salary Calculator, but the results are not calculated. They show the average and the quartiles for how much IDA members with the selected profile get paid. You can also see how many responses the result is based on and therefore assess how valid they are. The more answers, the less the uncertainty.
When using the Web tables, it is a good idea to look at both the average salary and the 50% fractiles. The average salary can be distorted by individual high salaries, while the 50% fractile shows the salary level for the IDA members in the middle of the field.
However, you know your value best yourself, and if you are one of the best and highest performing employees in your field, you should look at the 75% or 90% fractile.
Consider other terms than salary with IDA's Guide to Employment Terms
IDA's Salary Statistics and the other salary tools include monthly salary, allowances, pension and taxable benefits in the total salary. On the other hand, bonus, overtime pay, the value of extra days off and other fringe benefits are not part of this salary concept. In IDA's Guide to Employment Terms, you can examine these conditions in private sector companies. If you are a public sector employee, you can also compare conditions such as compensation for overtime and scheduled weekend and evening work at different public sector workplaces.
Companies pay their employees differently. Where some have a fixed salary, others use variable salary components to a greater extent as bonuses, which are not part of IDA's salary concept.
If a company has a low index number in IDA's Company Statistics, you can therefore use IDA's guide to see if this is because the salary package is composed in a different way.
Compare working conditions in IDA's Guide to Employment Terms
How to use the results in your salary negotiations
By using the various salary tools, you can find a suitable salary for your profile and for the relevant employer. You will probably end up with different amounts when using the different tools, and here IDA recommends that you choose an amount at the high end as your salary proposal, but that you also decide on a lower salary that you will be happy to accept.
In addition, you should be aware that all the salary tools are based on IDA's Salary Statistics, which show a snapshot. IDA always collects information on the salary of private employees in September and for public employees in May. When you have to negotiate salary, IDA therefore recommends that you calculate the expected salary increase for the year on top of the result that the salary tools give you. However, you must be aware that your length of service has a great influence on how much you can increase in salary. You can see the salary increases broken down by length of service on page 5 of IDA's Salary Statistics.
IDA follows salary trends and publishes a forecast once a year, and otherwise you can find information about the general salary developments at the Economic Councils. Here, you just have to be aware that the salary development is, in terms of experience, slightly higher for IDA's members than for the rest of the private labour market.
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.