Blog/Guides
Holiday pay in Norway: 10.2, 12, 12.5 or 14.3 per cent?
Two of those four rates are statutory and two come from agreement. And the 6G cap bites only on the over-60 supplement, never on the base rate. It is the single most expensive miscalculation in Norwegian payroll.
Four percentages circulate in Norwegian payroll: 10.2, 12, 12.5 and 14.3. Two of them are in the Act and two are not, and choosing the wrong one is either an underpayment or a commitment you never made.
Then there is the 6G cap — six times the National Insurance basic amount — which applies to a smaller part of the calculation than almost everyone assumes.
Everything below runs on ferieloven of 29 April 1988 no. 21. How many days of leave the money is attached to is covered in Annual leave in Norway.
TL;DR
- The statutory holiday pay rate is 10.2 per cent of the holiday pay base — the legal minimum, tied to 25 working days of leave.
- Employees over 60 get a statutory 2.3 percentage-point supplement on top of the base rate.
- 12 per cent applies only when a collective agreement or policy grants an extra week of leave — it is not written in the Act.
- The 6G cap limits only the over-60 supplement — the base rate applies to the whole holiday pay base, uncapped.
- Holiday pay is paid on the last ordinary payday before the leave, at the latest one week ahead.
- On leaving, all accrued holiday pay falls due immediately, including the current year’s accrual that would otherwise wait until next summer.
Which rate applies?
The employee has a right to holiday pay (feriepenger on the payslip) from the employer at 10.2 per cent of the holiday pay base (Section 10 no. 2). That is the statutory minimum, and it goes with the statutory 25 working days.
12 per cent is not statutory text. It appears where the employer, through a collective agreement or its own policy, gives five weeks of leave, 30 working days, instead of the Act’s four weeks and one day. Both Arbeidstilsynet and Altinn document it as the rate that accompanies the fifth week. It follows from arithmetic, not from the Act: one extra week of leave needs a matching uplift or the employee loses pay.
| Situation | Rate | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|
| 25 working days, the statutory minimum | 10.2 % | Ferieloven s. 10 no. 2 — statutory |
| 25 working days, employee over 60 | 12.5 % | s. 10 no. 2 + no. 3, +2.3 pp — statutory |
| 30 working days, five weeks by agreement | 12 % | Not statutory — Arbeidstilsynet / Altinn |
| 30 working days, employee over 60 | 14.3 % | Not statutory — Arbeidstilsynet / Altinn |
Next: establish which rate you are actually committed to before choosing one in payroll. Paying 12 per cent without a collective agreement or a written practice creates the commitment by conduct.
Does the 6G cap apply to the whole payment?
No — it applies to one line only. This is the most common and most expensive mistake in the whole area, and two wrong readings are equally widespread.
- Applying 12.5 or 14.3 per cent to the whole base, uncapped. Overpays on everything above 6G.
- Capping the entire holiday pay sum at 6G. Underpays badly — the base rate is never touched by the cap.
The 2.3-point supplement itself — the holiday pay granted by that same paragraph’s first sentence — is what gets withheld for the part of the holiday pay base exceeding six times the National Insurance basic amount (Section 10 no. 3). The base rate is not mentioned in that provision.
So the calculation has two separate lines:
base = holiday pay base × (10.2 % or 12 %) [no cap]
supplement = min(holiday pay base, 6G) × 2.3 % [over-60 only]
holiday pay = base + supplement“Base” there means the holiday pay produced by the base rate. Do not confuse it with grunnbeløpet (G), the National Insurance amount the 6G limit is measured in.
G is taken as it stood on 31 December of the earning year (or on leaving), not as it stands today — see the table for the current amount.
| Figure | Amount |
|---|---|
| National Insurance basic amount (G), from 1 May 2026 | 136,549 kroner |
| 6G cap | 819,294 kroner |
Next: open your payroll’s over-60 rule and check whether it produces one line or two. One line is wrong whichever direction it errs in. The holiday pay calculator splits them deliberately.
What goes into the holiday pay base?
Section 10 no. 1 bases holiday pay on the work remuneration paid during the earning year — the calendar year before the leave year. Holiday pay paid out in 2026 is normally earned on pay paid during 2025.
The Act lists explicit exclusions:
- Holiday pay already paid out: holiday pay does not generate further holiday pay.
- A share of net profit, typically profit-sharing.
- Fixed allowances that run regardless of absence.
- Benefits in kind, except meal allowances.
The first of those is the one that goes wrong. Forgetting to strip last year’s holiday pay out of this year’s base inflates every calculation until someone notices.
And because the base is built from the previous calendar year, a mid-year joiner’s first summer produces a much smaller payment than their salary suggests, which is worth saying at the offer stage rather than in June.
Next: reconcile this year’s holiday pay base against last year’s payroll journal, with holiday pay excluded. That single check catches the most common inflation error.
When does holiday pay get paid?
Section 11 no. 1: holiday pay is paid on the last ordinary payday before the leave, and the employee may demand payment at the latest one week before the leave starts.
Many Norwegian employers bundle the main payment into June, because the hovedferie normally falls in the summer months. That is a consequence of the rule, not a separate statutory June deadline, and it is why the vacation month itself pays less than an ordinary month.
Next: check that anyone taking leave outside the summer block is still paid on the last payday before their own leave — not swept into the June bulk run by default.
What happens to holiday pay when someone leaves?
Section 11 no. 3 is categorical. When employment ends, all accrued holiday pay is paid on the last ordinary payday before leaving.
That includes holiday pay accrued during the current calendar year, which would otherwise not fall due until next summer. Two earning years therefore need checking before a final settlement goes out: the previous one and the running one.
Next: add both years to your offboarding checklist. This is the single item most often missing from a Norwegian final settlement.
How does Taito.ai help with this?
Holiday pay depends on an accurate base of earnings from the correct year, tracked separately for every employee. Taito.ai sets up that earnings record and keeps it maintained automatically, so the base going into the calculation is never a guess.
Sources
- Ferieloven (LOV-1988-04-29-21) — sections 10 and 11
- Arbeidstilsynet — feriepenger
- Altinn — feriepenger
- NAV — grunnbeløpet
Lovdata publishes no official English translation of ferieloven, so every rule here is paraphrased rather than quoted. Grunnbeløpet is re-set every 1 May, so the 6G figure above carries its date — check the current amount at NAV before running a calculation. The rates of 12 and 14.3 per cent come from collective agreements and sector practice rather than from the Act, and are labelled as such each time they appear.
Disclaimer
Taito.ai does not provide legal, tax or accounting advice. This article is general information about the law as it stood on the date above, not advice on your situation, and it is not a substitute for it. Rates and thresholds change. Check with a qualified adviser before acting on anything here.
