Working Conditions in Sweden

Work Permits and Visa Requirements

Sweden is a full member of the EU.

Working hours and overtime

For feature films and TV series your pay is usually based on a monthly salary. To calculate the daily rate, divide the monthly salary by 21 working days.
To calculate the weekly, divide the monthly salary by 4.2 weeks.
The working day in Sweden is 8 hours. A shooting day has normal hours between 08.00 – 17.00 including a one-hour lunch break. The lunch break should be no later than 5 hours after start work. It's allowed and common practice to schedule a 45 min lunch break plus an additional 15 min snack break.
Working hours start and ends at the production office, not on location/set, travel from office to set is included in the working day. You can make separate agreements with individuals who start and end their workday at a different location (for example, at an equipment rental house) regarding how they calculate travel time.
A working week consists of 40 hours and is usually divided across 5 days but can consist of as many as six days.
If you prefer/need to work 10-hour days, you are allowed to plan your shooting days as 4x10 10-hour days per week as well and by that borrow time from other days of the week. You are allowed to schedule a maximum of 10 hours per day.
You either work with 1-week planning, or 4-week planning. The 4-week planning means that you can borrow and use 4-weeks working hours (160 hours) when you plan your shooting schedule. Regardless of how the length of the calculation period is determined, it must always be organized using a fixed and not rolling system.

You can schedule 50-hour weeks but up to a maximum of four weeks scheduled consecutively. If you intend to apply this alternative regulation you must notify the Swedish Union for Performing Arts and Film (Scen & Film) of this before filming begins. A prerequisite for applying this is that a preliminary working hours schedule is established for the filming period/block. The definite schedule is set 14 days in advance for each week.

Overtime is paid in three different rates depending on the circumstances.

Overtime can be based on individual agreement replaced with two hours off for each hour of overtime.

Overtime can be negotiated to be included in the monthly salary. In this case, the holiday payment if an individual is on salary increases from 13% to 14.4% (see more information about fringes below).

Working on weekends/nights is allowed but you need to pay an additional amount for the following hours due to working during inconvenient/unsocial hours (called “obekväm arbetstid” or “OB for short”):

The day before a work free day all work must be finished well before midnight.

Productions are required to encourage crews to elect a union representative and a safety representative to whom crew members can bring concerns and complaints to be forwarded to production management or producers.

Link to Union Agreement 2025-2027

*Please note these rates are based on an individual receiving salary and need to be adjusted to include fringes if an individual will invoice.

Per Diem, Living arrangements and Travels

The place of work should be specified on the contract, regardless of where in Sweden your crew normally lives. When required to stay in a location which is more than 50km away from than the contracted place of work for at least one night, per diem allowances are paid in accordance with the Swedish Tax Agency's (Skatteverket) guidelines.

Link to Swedish Tax Agency’s (Skatteverket) guidelines in Swedish.

It is custom to pay for a hotel/apartment for team members and actors if they work away from home, regardless of the contracted place of work.

Travel to the contracted place of work when starting the job and then return travel when they finish the job should be paid by Production.

Allowance for personal home travel during production should be negotiated in advance.

Actors & Extras

Actors working days are also 8 hours per day (wardrobe and makeup time excluded). After that they are entitled to overtime if their pay is below 8 976 SEK/day until 31st May 2026, then 9 245 SEK/day. Actors should have lunch break after 5 hours shooting (make-up and wardrobe excluded) and the turnaround is minimum 11 hours.

Extras are paid for number of shooting days. Normally between 400 – 999 SEK. If they have lines – paid between 1 500 – 2 500 SEK. If extras need to come in for fittings before their shooting day they will normally get paid 200-500 SEK /fitting.

Shooting with Children

If working with minors (a person under 18 years) a special permit is required. There are different rules about working and rest hours depending on the age in the following brackets:

For example a child under 13 years up to aged 15 years cannot work between 20:00 and 06:00.

More information can be found in Swedish at the regulating body for these permits, the Swedish Work Environment Authority (Arbetsmiljöverket).

You apply for the permit on the Arbetsmiljöverket website, which requests applications at least 8 weeks before shooting, but it can go faster, approximately 2-3 weeks depending on the working hours and conditions. You can submit a general application before knowing exactly which minors will participate - just specify how many children and their age category, then add names and birth dates later.

The application is free of charge. The application link can be found here.

Fringes

52-56 % of the total amount to be added on all wages. This is a rough number that includes social fees, holiday payment, pension, basic insurance and so on. The exact percentage might vary a bit but 56 % can be used as a standard when budgeting to be safe. For extras you only pay 32% fringes.

Rates

Link on Rates + more on

Check also the standard contract in English

Locations

Filming on public property requires permits from two authorities: the Police and the municipality's Traffic and Property Office (Gatu- och Fastighetskontoret). You need permits as soon as your production goes beyond handheld filming – this includes using equipment, crew, or taking up space on public ground. You need permits to close off any public space for the public.

If you need to reserve parking near your location or park in restricted areas, you must apply for a parking dispensation through the municipality's traffic office. This is separate from your location permit.

For more complex needs – such as closing a street, driving against traffic, or clearing an area of parked cars – you'll need additional permits: a Traffic Arrangement Plan (TA-plan) for temporary road closures, or a modification to Local Traffic Regulations (LTF) for clearing areas of modern vehicles (common in period productions).

The rate is different depending on the town you are filming in and how much you require for your shoot. Typical Costs (examples from Stockholm as of 2025, may vary by municipality)

Police permit application: 990 SEK
Use of public space: 990 SEK per location
Traffic and Property Office location fee: Variable costs depending on requirements and area
Parking permit: 800 SEK per application
Traffic signage and arrangements: Variable costs depending on requirements

Renting private locations is normally around 10'000 – 15'000 SEK/day for simpler locations such as homes. For renting commercial or cultural buildings it’s normal to pay from 20'000 SEK to... the sky’s the limit... Generally, the smaller the town the cheaper locations.

VAT

VAT in Sweden is divided in three groups:

Most VAT is refundable for film companies. But one exception is for rental cars where only half of the VAT (12.5%) is refundable.

Link to Swedish Tax Agency’s (Skatteverket) guidelines in Swedish.

Useful links and sources of Information:

There are several regional film commissions when working in different parts of Sweden. A sample can be found below, and a more comprehensive list can be found on the Swedish Film & TV Producer's website:

The different film commissions have different spend requirements, mostly something that the producers negotiate directly with the film commission, however 200% spend requirement including a certain amount of filming days in the region is a common requirement.