How should you argue at the pay interview when you have been on parental leave?

According to the Parental Leave Act, employers are prohibited from disadvantaging employees because of parental leave. This means, among other things, that parental leave must not lead to you as an employee falling behind in salary, i.e. receiving no or too little salary growth.

In the salary review, employees on parental leave must be assessed on the basis of their performance before the leave. In other words, the employer must "disregard" your parental leave and assume that, if you had been working during the year, you would have continued to perform as you did before you went on parental leave.

So, when preparing your arguments, you should start from your performance before you went on parental leave. You can of course include performance and the work you did during the months you were back as well, but the period of parental leave should not be used against you in the salary discussion.