Denmark’s wealthy have tripled their income over the last three decades

Gap between the elite and middle classes continuing to increase

Since the mid-1980s, the elite in Denmark have tripled their annual net income, according to new figures from the labour council Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd (AE).

The figures revealed that, on average, a wealthy family earned about 250,000 kroner after tax back in 1985. That has tripled to about 700,000 kroner after tax today.

“This disproves the notion that we are all part of some large middle-class,” Jonas Schytz Juul, a chief analyst for AE, told Politiken newspaper. “The elite is definitely running away from the rest of the Danes.”

READ MORE: Danish income tax no longer one of the highest in the OECD

Financial crisis
The figures also showed that during the same period, working class Danes experienced a more conservative income increase of 47.9 percent.

The overall increase was particularly stunted by the financial crisis a few years ago.





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.