In the Home Office’s latest Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (March 2023) it was announced that there will be an increase to the minimum salary for the Skilled Worker Visa which will take effect from 12 April 2023.
The new minimum salary for the Skilled Worker Visa are as followed:
The general threshold for most applications will increase from £25,600 to £26,200.
The threshold for new entrant tradeable points will increase from £20,480 to £20,960.
It is important to note that the skilled worker visa salary requirement is now based on a 37.5 hour working week, rather than the previous 39 hours. Therefore, if an employee has a longer working week, then their salary will need to be adjusted proportionally to determine if they meet the sponsorship eligibility requirements.
The new skilled worker minimum salary requirement will affect various industries and occupations. The going rate for specific occupations can be found in the 9 March - Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules (page 39 onwards).
By way of example,the going rate salary for Butchers in the meat processing sector will increase from £19,300 to £20,400. However, you will need to increase the salary to the new floor salary of £26,200 unless you are relying on the new entrant tradeable points where the floor salary has increased to £20,960.
Conversely, if you are relying on ‘shortage occupation’ tradeable points or new entrant tradeable points when recruiting graduates, you will need to ensure that from 12 April 2023 that the salary on offer does not fall below £20,960.
With this in mind, from 12 April 2023, the Skilled Worker ‘tradeable points’ rule will look like this:
| Tradeable points - 20 required |
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| Salary |
Other |
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| General salary threshold |
Going rate |
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| Salary of at least £20,960 (up from £20,480). |
At least 80% of the going rate for the profession (70% if a new entrant). |
0 |
Education qualification: PhD in a subject relevant to the job. |
10 |
| Salary of at least £23,580 (up from £23,040). |
At least 90% of the going rate for the profession. |
10 |
Education qualification: PhD in a STEM subject relevant to the job, |
20 |
| Salary of at least £26,200 (up from £25,600). |
At least the going rate for the profession. |
20 |
Job in a shortage occupation (as designated by the MAC). |
20 |
| Salary of at least £20,960 (up from £20,480). |
A listed health/education job which meets the relevant national pay scale. |
20 |
Applicant is a new entrant to the labour market (as designated by the MAC). |
20 |