Swedish Employer Rates and Thresholds 2026

Swedish employers pay a single set of employer contributions (arbetsgivaravgifter) on gross pay and taxable benefits, with no ceiling. The 2026 total of 31.42% is the same as in 2025, but its make-up changed: the general payroll fee rose from 11.62% to 12.62%, while the parental insurance, survivors' pension and work injury parts fell.

On top comes a holiday supplement for monthly-paid staff and, where a collective agreement applies, an occupational pension, which isn't in the table because no statute sets its rate.

Employer contributions and the holiday supplement for a full year, for an employee born in 1959 or later (occupational pension extra):

• 25 days of paid leave each holiday year (5 days if employment starts after 31 August). Holiday pay is either normal salary plus a supplement of 0.43% of monthly salary per day (same-salary rule) or 12% of the year's pay (percentage rule).
• For the first 14 calendar days of an illness the employer pays sick pay of 80% of pay, less a waiting deduction of 20% of a week's sick pay. If a new illness starts within five days of the last, the periods are combined and no new deduction is made.
• Ordinary working time is at most 40 hours a week. General overtime is limited to 48 hours in four weeks or 50 hours in a calendar month, and 200 hours a year, with up to 150 hours of extra overtime in special circumstances.
• A parent has the right to full leave to care for a child until the child is 18 months old, with further part-time and benefit-linked leave rights after that.
• Public holidays are New Year's Day, Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Monday, 1 May, Ascension Day, Whit Sunday, National Day (6 June), Midsummer Day, All Saints' Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, plus Sundays.

• Employment is open-ended unless a fixed term is agreed for one of three reasons: special fixed-term employment, a substitute, or seasonal work. Special fixed-term employment becomes open-ended once it has lasted more than 12 months in total within five years (or during a chain of fixed-term contracts with gaps of six months or less).
• A probationary employment can be agreed for up to six months. It becomes open-ended unless either side gives notice before the end of the probation period.
• At least one month for both sides. The employee is entitled to two months' notice after two years' service, three after four years, four after six years, five after eight years and six months after ten years. Pay and benefits continue during notice.
• Dismissal by the employer must have objective grounds: redundancy or reasons relating to the employee personally. It isn't objectively justified if the employer could reasonably redeploy the employee. Redundancies follow statutory order-of-selection rules.
• A staffing company must give agency workers at least the basic conditions (including pay, working time and holidays) they would have had if hired directly by the client, unless it applies a collective agreement; equal pay doesn't apply to open-ended employees paid between assignments. It may not stop a worker joining the client or charge them for it.