Your employer has offered a salary and confirmed that they are willing to sponsor you. The figure looks reasonable for the role, and someone has checked that it exceeds the usual Skilled Worker visa salary threshold. You may already be discussing a start date, handing in your notice or preparing to move.
Before those decisions become commitments, the salary needs to be examined against the requirements for your particular application.
For many applicants, the starting point is £41,700 a year or the occupation’s going rate, whichever is higher. A salary above £41,700 can therefore still be insufficient. Other applicants may qualify under lower salary provisions, but those provisions depend on the job, the worker’s circumstances and the conditions attached to the relevant option.
Our view is that the salary assessment should happen while the employment offer can still be shaped. The worker and employer should understand which requirement applies, how the calculation works and whether the proposed arrangement can support the application.
That requires more than checking one annual figure.
What is the Skilled Worker visa salary threshold?
The usual salary assessment brings together two requirements. The first is a general annual threshold. The second is the going rate attached to the occupation code used for the job. Under the standard salary option, the worker must satisfy both the £41,700 threshold and the full applicable going rate.
The relationship between those figures matters. If the going rate is higher, meeting the general threshold will not be enough. If the going rate is lower, the general threshold still needs to be met. The applicant cannot choose whichever figure is more convenient.
This is why an employer’s statement that a role “pays above the visa minimum” needs a clear explanation. Which minimum has been checked? Which occupation code was used? Were the proposed weekly hours included? Does the calculation depend on a lower salary option?
A useful answer should make the reasoning visible. The worker should be able to understand why the offer qualifies, and the employer should be able to explain the calculation without relying on a figure copied from an earlier recruitment exercise.
The occupation code needs to reflect the actual job
Before the going rate can be established, the role needs to be placed in the appropriate occupation code. The job description is therefore part of the salary assessment.
A title such as “manager”, “consultant” or “analyst” can describe quite different work in different organisations. The assessment needs to consider the duties, responsibilities and level of the position. Selecting a code because its salary requirement fits the recruitment budget reverses that process.
The Home Office’s sponsor guidance expressly addresses the use of inappropriate occupation codes, including where the most appropriate code has a higher going rate than the employer intends to pay.
For a worker, this means asking the employer which code it proposes to use and whether the description accurately reflects the work being offered. For an employer, it means resolving any uncertainty about the role before finalising the salary calculation.
Our guidance on whether a proposed job qualifies for sponsorship considers that earlier assessment. A salary calculation built on the wrong description of the job can give both sides confidence in an arrangement that has not actually been established.
Working hours can change the required salary
For occupations using the usual 37.5-hour basis, the published annual going rate must be adjusted to the weekly working hours stated by the sponsor. Reading the annual figure without checking the working pattern can therefore produce the wrong result.
Consider a hypothetical eligible role with an applicable standard going rate of £45,000 for a 37.5-hour week. The employer offers £46,000 in qualifying basic salary, and the applicant is relying on the standard salary option.
For a 37.5-hour week, that offer would exceed both the assumed going rate and the £41,700 general threshold. For a 40-hour week, however, the adjusted going rate would be £48,000: £45,000 multiplied by 40 and divided by 37.5. The same £46,000 offer would then fall short.
These figures illustrate the calculation; they are not the published rate for a particular occupation. They also address salary only. The remaining visa requirements would still need to be satisfied.
The practical lesson is that salary and hours belong in the same conversation. If recruitment agrees the annual figure while an operational manager separately decides the working week, the two decisions can create an immigration problem.
Any material change to the proposed hours should therefore prompt another look at the calculation before the sponsorship details are settled.
Part-time work does not reduce every salary requirement
Part-time employment requires particular care because the two salary tests behave differently. The going rate can be adjusted for fewer working hours, but the applicable general annual threshold is not reduced simply because the person works part-time.
Long working weeks also need examination. Normally, only salary attributable to the first 48 weekly hours counts towards the general threshold, while all weekly hours are included when assessing the going rate. Specific averaging provisions apply to qualifying irregular working patterns.
For a part-time offer, the distinction between actual pay and full-time equivalent pay is especially important. A role advertised at £50,000 full-time equivalent does not necessarily pay the applicant £50,000. Someone working three-fifths of the full-time hours might receive £30,000.
That £30,000 would fall below the standard £41,700 general threshold, even if it comfortably met the adjusted occupation rate.
A worker considering reduced hours should ask for the actual annual salary and the proposed weekly hours in writing. Those figures provide a more reliable starting point than a full-time equivalent headline or an informal assurance that the hourly pay is competitive.
The whole employment package may not count as salary
An offer letter may describe a package that includes basic pay, a bonus, pension contributions, allowances and other benefits. The immigration assessment does not necessarily treat that package as one qualifying amount.
Under Appendix Skilled Worker, the starting point is guaranteed basic gross pay. Certain other guaranteed payments can qualify where they receive the same treatment as basic pay for tax, pension and National Insurance purposes. The rules exclude specified additional payments and benefits, including overtime, shift pay and bonuses, even where guaranteed, as well as employer pension contributions and benefits in kind.
A package described as “£48,000 including bonus and benefits” therefore needs to be broken down. The employer’s total cost of employing someone may differ substantially from the salary that can be used for the visa calculation.
This distinction should be settled before the offer is presented as suitable for sponsorship. It is much easier to discuss the structure of remuneration during recruitment than after the worker has relied on an overall package figure.
For the worker, the useful question is what qualifying pay they are contractually entitled to receive, rather than what they might earn if every additional payment materialises.
When can a lower Skilled Worker salary qualify?
The rules provide several alternatives to the standard salary option. Within the standard salary framework, a qualifying new entrant may rely on £33,400 and 70% of the applicable going rate. A relevant STEM PhD can support £33,400 and 80% of the going rate, while a relevant non-STEM PhD can support £37,500 and 90%.
An eligible Immigration Salary List job can also have a £33,400 general threshold, but still requires the full applicable going rate. Each option has conditions beyond the salary figures.
These provisions need to be matched to the applicant and role. “New entrant” has a defined immigration meaning. It does not simply describe someone joining a new employer or starting their first sponsored job. Similarly, possessing a doctorate does not establish that the qualification and occupation meet the requirements for PhD points.
New entrant permission is also subject to a four-year combined limit covering relevant Skilled Worker, Graduate and Tier 2 permission. Previous permission can therefore affect how much sponsorship is available on that basis.
Our recommendation is to identify the precise basis for any lower salary before agreeing the offer. Record the evidence that supports it and establish whether it affects the proposed period of sponsorship.
There is a further distinction between the Immigration Salary List and the Temporary Shortage List. Inclusion on the Temporary Shortage List does not itself provide a going-rate discount. A separate qualifying salary option would still need to be established.
A description such as “shortage occupation salary” is therefore too imprecise to settle the calculation.
Earlier sponsorship may bring different salary provisions into play
Some workers whose first relevant Certificate of Sponsorship was assigned before 4 April 2024, and who have maintained the required continuous permission, can benefit from transitional salary provisions.
The ordinary starting point within that framework is £31,300 or the applicable lower going rate, whichever is higher. Under the current provisions, qualifying applications must be made before 4 April 2030. The figures can still be updated, so this does not preserve the salary requirement that applied when the worker first obtained permission.
The worker’s actual immigration history matters here. The date they first arrived in the UK may not answer the question. Someone may have spent several years studying or working under another route before obtaining Skilled Worker permission.
An assessment should therefore use the relevant sponsorship and immigration records, rather than a general recollection that the person has been in the UK “under the old rules”.
There is also a practical reason to be precise. Two people doing the same job may face different salary assessments because their histories differ. The employer needs to understand the basis for each worker’s position, rather than assume that the salary accepted for one employee will work for everyone recruited into that role.
Healthcare and education jobs need their own assessment
Certain eligible healthcare and education occupations use national pay scales. For those roles, the usual requirement is at least £25,000 and the applicable going rate, which may be higher. The relevant national pay scale can apply to eligible jobs in the private sector as well as the public sector.
Other qualifying health and care occupations operate under a different salary framework. Specific provisions also exist for certain nurses and midwives working towards registration. The employer’s sector alone therefore does not settle the calculation.
For a worker assessing a healthcare offer, the job classification, pay band and working pattern should be clear. A broad statement that “NHS jobs have different rules” does not establish the requirement for the individual position.
The same applies to private providers. An employer should identify the provisions attached to the occupation rather than assume that a private-sector contract can be assessed independently of the relevant national pay scale.
This is an area where applying the general £41,700 figure indiscriminately can lead someone to reject an offer that deserves a different assessment.
Repayment arrangements can affect the salary calculation
The salary written in the contract may not be the end of the assessment. Payments from the worker to the sponsor, or to a related organisation, can also matter.
Paragraph SW 14.2A addresses specified deductions, loan repayments and investments. Relevant amounts are subtracted when assessing salary and averaged over the sponsorship period. An exception concerns genuinely optional additional benefits that are unrelated to business costs, immigration costs or investment.
The practical implication is that an immigration-cost loan or repayment agreement should be reviewed alongside the employment offer. Treating it as separate paperwork can conceal its effect on the salary assessment.
A worker should understand what they must repay, to whom, over what period and in which circumstances. An employer should establish how the arrangement is treated before confirming that the proposed remuneration meets the immigration requirements.
There is also a separate question about whether a sponsorship cost can lawfully be passed to the worker at all. Our article on who should pay for UK visa sponsorship examines those responsibilities.
Reviewing the documents together allows both questions to be addressed: whether the funding arrangement is permissible, and what it does to the salary being assessed.
A future pay rise does not settle the present application
Some employment offers begin at one salary and promise an increase after probation, professional registration or a performance review. Others suggest that a bonus will bring overall earnings above the required level.
Those arrangements need to be examined against the salary requirements that actually apply. A general expectation of progression should not be treated as evidence that the initial offer already qualifies.
For the worker, the distinction is commercially significant. A written commitment to a specified increase is different from a discretionary review. Both are different again from an informal assurance that the business will “sort out the visa salary later”.
The employer should establish which salary will apply to the sponsored employment and ensure that the contract and sponsorship details describe the intended arrangement accurately. Where a specific concession permits a temporary position, its conditions should be identified expressly.
Our view is that an unresolved salary issue belongs in the recruitment discussion. Asking the worker to commit first and leaving the immigration calculation until later places avoidable pressure on both sides.
A clear offer allows the worker to make an informed decision and gives the employer a recruitment plan it can realistically deliver.
An existing visa and a new application raise different questions
A later increase in published salary thresholds does not ordinarily change the requirement for the remainder of an existing Skilled Worker grant. A further application, however, requires assessment against the rules and any transitional arrangements relevant to that application.
This distinction matters when someone reads that the minimum salary has increased. The immediate question is what decision they are facing: continuing in their existing sponsored role, extending permission, changing employer or altering their employment terms.
An employer considering a salary reduction needs to examine the worker’s existing sponsorship basis and the proposed change. Comparing the revised figure with today’s standard threshold alone may not answer the question. Our article on salary changes for sponsored workers addresses that situation in more detail.
For an extension or new job, the assessment should begin early enough to identify whether the proposed salary remains workable. A worker should not discover shortly before their permission expires that the offer depends on an assumption nobody has checked.
Earlier review creates room for a proper discussion about pay, timing and the available immigration options.
What should be established before relying on the offer?
A useful assessment should leave both parties able to explain the conclusion. Start with the proposed duties, occupation code, actual annual salary and weekly hours. Add the breakdown of additional remuneration, relevant immigration history and any agreement involving payments to the sponsor.
Then identify the salary option being relied upon. Establish what evidence supports eligibility for that option, which occupation rate applies and how the working pattern affects the calculation.
The documents should tell a consistent story. If the contract describes one working week while the proposed Certificate of Sponsorship uses another, the difference needs resolving. If the recruitment discussion refers to a total package while the visa calculation relies on basic pay, that distinction should be made explicit.
For an employer, it is sensible to record the calculation and the assumptions behind it. That gives HR, recruitment and payroll a common reference point. For a worker, it provides a clearer basis for deciding whether to accept the role and how to plan the application.
Any unresolved point should remain visible. A conditional conclusion can be useful, provided everyone understands what still needs to be established before relying on it.
A workable salary offer should support the next decision
The Skilled Worker salary threshold is part of a wider assessment of whether a particular job can support a particular application. The annual figure becomes meaningful when it is read alongside the occupation, working hours, qualifying pay and applicant’s circumstances.
In our view, the strongest offer is one the employer can explain and the worker can understand before either side commits to the next stage. That clarity helps prevent recruitment promises, employment documents and immigration preparation from moving in different directions.
Knightsbridge’s Skilled Worker Visa service considers the proposed role, salary, sponsorship details and individual circumstances.
If you need to establish whether a job offer, extension or change of employer meets the salary requirements, Request a Case Assessment. Explain the proposed salary and hours, the role and your current immigration position so the appropriate next step can be considered.
