Employment contract – Hourly paid employee

What is an employment contract for hourly paid employees?

An employment contract for an hourly paid employee is a contract that describes all the essential terms for the employee's employment in the company. In addition to terms such as work tasks, working hours and salary, you can also choose to regulate additional matters, such as confidentiality and protection of intellectual property rights.

Create an employment contract for hourly paid employees here

When am I considered hourly paid?

An employee is paid by the hour when he or she is paid for the number of hours worked during the pay period. This will often be the case with for example waiters and the like. You should be aware that hourly paid employees can often be covered by a collective agreement. If the employee receives a fixed monthly salary for his/her work – no matter how many working days there are in the month – he/she is either a part-time employee or a full-time employee.

You can create an employment contract for monthly paid employees here

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Can a salaried employee be paid by the hour?

If an employee is a salaried employee (funktionær), he or she will be covered by the Salaried Employees Act (funktionærloven), which contains a number of protection rules about termination, illness etc. Whether an hourly paid employee is a salaried employee depends on three conditions. If all of these are met, the hourly paid employee is a salaried employee. The conditions are:

1. Works at least 8 hours a week
   The employee must work at least 8 hours a week on average. If working hours fluctuate, the average working hours per week have to be calculated.

2. Subject to instruction
   The employee must be subject to instruction, which means that there must be a superior who gives the employee instructions in relation to the execution of the work.

3. Performs salaried work
   The employee must perform salaried work, which includes office work, sales work, warehouse work and certain types of clinical work.

Hourly paid salaried employees are for example students, on-call substitutes and such who work part-time with a varying number of hours during the pay period.

Example of an employment contract

Below you can see an example of an employment contract for hourly paid employees that meets all requirements. The employment contract in the example describes, among other things, matters concerning working hours, salary, notice period, start date and whether the employee is a salaried employee. You can start filling out our form for free and without obligation, so you can see what it includes for yourself.

Is the employee covered by a collective agreement?

Many hourly paid employees are covered by a collective agreement. A collective agreement is an agreement between an employers organization and an employees organization. There will be a large number of terms stated in the collective agreement, that must be complied with in relation to the employment and the employment contract. If the employment is covered by a collective agreement, you will not be able to use this employment contract for hourly paid employees.

Why do I need to make an employment contract?

The employee is entitled to an employment contract, within a deadline of seven calendar days after he/she is hired, if he/she is employed for a minimum of one month and works at least three hours a week. If an employment contract is not created, the employer may risk having to pay a fine to the employee, which is usually between 2.500 and 7.500 DKK. In addition to avoiding the risk of a fine, an employment contract also provides clarity about the terms of employment, which is a benefit for both the employee and the company.

How do I validate the employment contract for hourly paid employees?

Once you have answered the form, you will immediately receive the employment contract, which is ready to be signed by you and your employee. You can easily and securely sign the contract with your MitID (read more about how this is done here) and there is therefore no need to print or scan. The employment contract is valid as soon as you have both signed, and you can store it safely in each of your private Legal Desk archives afterwards.

Create contract for hourly paid employee with Legal Desk

When you create your contract with Legal Desk, you do not need to fill in some generic pdf-template. Instead, you answer a number of questions and on that basis, your contract is automatically generated. The advantage of us not just offering a fixed contract template is that the employment contract you receive is more in line with your needs.

You can get started right away by clicking ‘Create employment contract now’ below.