Information for this page was compiled during December 2024 and January 2025. Most Member States had already transposed the EU minimum wage directive at this point, while others were still working towards it. Those that had not yet fully completed transposition or where the information was not yet publicly available include Bulgaria, Cyprus, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Spain. These profiles will be updated consecutively as the information becomes available. Users are invited to contact Eurofound if they are aware of changes.
Disclaimer: This information has not been subject to the full Eurofound evaluation, editorial and publication process.
Collective agreements are negotiated at sector level. Most blue-collar collective agreements and other collective agreements relevant for low-wage groups provide for minimum wage rates. the rates contained in these agreements might be considered to constitute a wage floor in Norway. Based on the General Application Act of 1993 (section 5), the Tariff Board may decide that a nationwide collective agreement shall be extended and thereby apply in full or in part to all employees who perform work of the kind covered by the agreement. Such a decision can only be made if it is documented that foreign employees perform or may perform work on terms that are less favourable than those pursuant to the collective agreement or what is otherwise conceived as normal for the place and occupation. Such documentation will usually be collected by the trade union initiating the claim for general application for consideration by the Tariff Board, and may consists of payslips, employment contracts etc.
In Norway, employers being member of an employer organisation are not automatically bound by the collective agreements signed by the organisation. Conditions for being bound are regulated by basic agreements between the employer organisation and a trade union confederation. Usually, the trade union will have to unionise a minimum of 10% of the employees performing work specified by the agreement. If they do, they will require the company to be bound by the agreement. Trade unions can also require an unorganised employer to be bound by an agreement. There are no minimum requirements regarding the number of unionised employees in the company in order to put forward a demand to the employer to enter into a collective agreement, but if the employer does not accept, the case will have to be settled by the use of industrial action (Labour Dispute Act, sections 8 and 18-25). If an employer applies a collective agreement, the employer will, according to case law, be obliged to apply the normative regulations to all workers covered by the agreement, regardless of them being members of the union or not.
Until March 2025, the EU minimum wage directive (EU 2022/2041) has not been transposed into Norwegian law. At the time of drafting this profile it is still unclear whether the directive will be part of the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement that links Norway to the internal market. The Directive was not marked as EEA relevant, and the position of the EFTA states is that it should not be included in the EEA Agreement. The EU Commission has however indicated a different position. Both the Norwegian government and the social partners have been reluctant to include the directive as they fear that this will undermine the Norwegian wage setting model.
The collective bargaining coverage is 72%, this percentage including extended agreements, (Nergaard 2024), but with great variation between sectors and industries. In the public sector all employees (100%) are covered by collective agreements. In the private sector, coverage is higher in manufacturing (76%) than in services (30-40%, depending on the specific industry). These percentages do not include extended minimum wages. In 2022, the coverage for the private sector considered overall was estimated to be increased by 11-12% (from around 46% to around 57%), if the effect of extended collective agreements were included (Nergaard, 2024). In general, bargaining coverage is lower among private sector employees in both ends of the wage structure, while those in the middle are more likely to be covered by a collective agreement. For low-paid workers, especially in private service sectors, low bargaining coverage is counteracted by making minimum wage regulations in the industry level collective agreements generally applicable. This applies to sectors such as (for instance) cleaning, transport, hotels and restaurants, the agricultural sector, and fish processing. Minimum wage regulations in collective agreements also tend to have a normative effect, hence being applied by companies not formally bound by the agreement, for instance in retail trade.
Norwegian wage bargaining is highly coordinated at central level. In line with the industry norm (frontrunner model), the manufacturing industry (the Industry Agreement) starts out and sets a norm for the other bargaining areas to follow. The main parties to this agreement are Norwegian Industries affiliated to Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises (NHO) and Fellesforbundet affiliated to Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO). The other bargaining areas, both in private and public sector, starts their negotiations as soon as, or within a few weeks after, the manufacturing industry has closed their negotiations. The norm is set as an annual wage increase, but within each sector the bargaining parties will agree on adjustment of minimum wages. However, the increases decided by the manufacturing industry will usually be copied by other blue-collar bargaining areas within the peak employer organisation, NHO. Several unions affiliated to LO have low-paid members. Fellesforbundet unionise workers in hotels and restaurants and transport, The Norwegian Workers’ Union (Norsk arbeidsmandsforbund) in cleaning, and Trade and Office Union (Handel og Kontor) in retail trade.
Collective agreements are renegotiated every other year, but with mid-term negotiations on wages. The mid-term negotiations are usually done at national level between the confederations, and NHO and LO will start out setting the norm for the rest of the labour market.
All confederations have committed to the frontrunner model through tripartite commissions (see NOU 2023: 30). Low-paid sectors follow the model too. Blue-collar union confederations, such as the LO, have adopted a wage solidarity police where the bargaining power of the strong unions within manufacturing (with high union density) is used to secure a decent wage increase for members in weaker unions (with low union-density) in private services. They do this by demanding wage increases in absolute figures, and not merely percentages. There are also other mechanisms for raising the lowest wages and thereby securing that these workers are not lagging behind the rest of the labour market (Alsos and Nergaard, 2018). For instance, wages of low-wage earners are usually secured through a special low-wage increment. This is applied in bargaining areas where the average wage is below a certain threshold (usually 90%) compared to the manufacturing average (Alsos and Nergaard, 2021). Wages could also be linked to the wage-levels of other groups, for instance the manufacturing average wage. This will secure an additional wage increase if the company/industry average is below the level secured by this low wage guarantee, for instance 85% of the average wage within manufacturing (Alsos and Nergaard, 2021).
There is a great variety of how minimum wages are regulated within the different collective agreements, but usually there are different rates based on occupation, skills, age and/or seniority. For instance, some agreements have separate rates for those under 18, and/or different rates based on seniority, either in the company or in the occupation. These categories are usually the same over time. In industry level agreements for blue collar workers, there are usually separate wage regulations for apprenticeships that are part of the formal education pathway for these trades. They are generally paid a percentage of the minimum wage, subject to increases every year. There is no tradition in Norway for subminima for workers that have difficulties to find work, for instance long-term unemployed, people with disabilities or immigrants. Access to the labour market is rather secured by wage subsidies from the state to the employer.
The minimum wage set by collective agreements covers exclusively the wage rate, while other components such as (for example) overtime pay, and holiday pay are paid on top of it. Collective agreements also usually include regulations on travel costs and board and lodging. Such costs, generally, may not be deducted from the minimum wage. In any case, there is no statutory definition of ‘basic rate’.
In relation to the minimum wages that are extended by law, there has been some discussion on whether the wages can be lower than the minimum rate if the employee receives other kinds of allowances. According to the Norwegian Labour Inspectorate (Arbeidstilsynet), employers are allowed to pay less than the extended minimum wage if the employee receive allowances that are considered as wage. However, this is subject to the condition that these allowances are considered as wage by the relevant legislation regarding calculation of holiday pay, tax, and social security benefits.
Reimbursements cannot be considered wage.
The Technical Calculation Committee for the Wage Settlements (TBU) provides the social partners and authorities with regular analysis of the economic situation. This includes wage levels and wage developments. The committee consists of representatives of all trade unions and employers’ confederations, as well as representatives of Statistics Norway, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Local Government and Modernisation, which represents the government in its role as employer. TBU publishes reports both prior to the wage negotiations and after the end bargaining round. In these latter reports (the most recent of which are listed below), the Committee provides a summary of the bargaining round and the relevant outcomes.
The reports for the latest five years can be found here:
Updated 14/04/2025