On March 2, 2021, as lawmakers in the United States continued to debate a proposal to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a message on Twitter noting that McDonald’s workers in Denmark were making $22 an hour and also got six weeks paid vacation:
This tweet is largely accurate. Full-time McDonald’s workers in Denmark truly make about $44,000 a year — which works out to a little over $21 an hour — and they truly get several weeks of paid vacation.
The claim that McDonald’s workers make $22 an hour is supported by the company’s 2019 annual report. That report notes that McDonald’s workers are paid 373,700 kroner annually (which works out to about $43,954.41 per year or $21.13 an hour.) According to an article published in Reuters by a McDonald’s employee living in Denmark, this wage is available to everyone over the age of 18:
I work for McDonald’s and I make $21 an hour. No, that isn’t a typo. It’s really my salary.
You see, I work for McDonald’s in Denmark, where an agreement between our union and the company guarantees that workers older than 18 are paid at least $21 an hour. Employees younger than 18 make at least $15 — meaning teenagers working at McDonald’s in Denmark make more than two times what many adults in America earn working at the Golden Arches.
The claim that Denmark’s McDonald’s employees get six weeks paid vacation appears to come from an opinion piece from The New York Times, which stated: “Starting pay for the humblest burger-flipper at McDonald’s in Denmark is about $22 an hour once various pay supplements are included. The McDonald’s workers in Denmark get six weeks of paid vacation a year, life insurance, a year’s paid maternity leave and a pension plan. And like all Danes, they enjoy universal medical insurance and paid sick leave.”
While we have not yet been able to find an original source for this information (we reached out to the union that represents McDonald’s workers, 3F, for more information), it is safe to say that McDonald’s workers get at least five weeks of paid vacation. In fact, every working person in Denmark is entitled to five weeks of paid vacation thanks to the country’s Holiday Act. The government of Denmark’s website explains:
If you try to visit a Danish office during the last weeks of July, you may find the doors locked entirely.
Business largely shuts down at this time of year, as the Danes take time off to enjoy the short Danish summer. Every employee is legally entitled to five weeks’ paid vacation per year, and the Danes are not shy about taking every minute of it.
Work-life balance is important in Denmark – people take pride in their work but do not feel the need to demonstrate their dedication by working long hours.
While McDonald’s workers in Denmark truly make more than $20 an hour, and receive several weeks of paid vacation, there is some important context to note here. The most notable difference is that the wages paid at Danish McDonald’s were not determined by the country’s minimum wage. In fact, Denmark does not have a nationwide minimum wage. Rather, the country has a robust union presence and issues such as wages and vacation time are often decided via collective bargaining.
Another point that is often raised when comparing McDonald’s wages in Denmark vs. the United States is how much these wages impact menu prices. While we can’t provide any exact figures here, we can say that the change in price isn’t extreme. A review by The New York Times, for instance, found that Big Macs cost “about 27 cents more on average in Denmark than in the United States.” But according to the “Big Mac Index” from the Economist, a Big Mac in Norway costs 76 cents less in “Denmark (US $4.90) than in the United States (US$5.66) at market exchange rates.”
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March 03, 2021 at 11:25PM
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Do McDonald's Workers in Denmark Make $22 an Hour? - Snopes.com
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