Salary Calculation for Skilled Worker Visa: How It Works

The two figures you have to meet

The Skilled Worker visa measures your salary against two figures, and the higher one wins:

• the general threshold, a single figure across the route — £41,700 a year since 22 July 2025. See our threshold guide; and
• the going rate for your occupation code, which the Home Office publishes for each code in Appendix Skilled Occupations. See our going rate guide.

Some applicants meet a lower general threshold, £33,400, together with a percentage of the going rate: 70% for people under 26, students, recent graduates and those in professional training, 80% for a science, technology, engineering or maths PhD relevant to the job, and 90% with a floor of £37,500 for a PhD in another subject. An Immigration Salary List job takes the £33,400 floor but still has to be paid the going rate in full — the list is not a discount on the going rate. Our tradeable points guide covers those categories.

What counts as salary

Appendix Skilled Worker, paragraph SW 14.1, puts it narrowly: salary only includes “guaranteed basic gross pay (before income tax and including employee pension and national insurance contributions) and other guaranteed payments which are treated exactly the same as basic gross pay for tax, pension and national insurance purposes”.

Not counted

Paragraph SW 14.2 lists what is left out:

• pay that cannot be guaranteed because the hours of the job fluctuate;
• shift, overtime or bonus pay, whether or not it is guaranteed;
• employer pension and employer National Insurance contributions;
• any allowances, such as accommodation or cost of living allowances;
• in-kind benefits, such as shares, health insurance, school or university fees, a company car, or food;
• one-off payments, such as a “golden hello”;
• payments covering immigration costs, such as the fee or the immigration health surcharge; and
• payments covering business expenses, including travel, equipment, clothing or subsistence.

Note where allowances sit. A guaranteed London weighting does not count, despite being contractual, because it is an allowance. The one exception is a transitional rule: someone granted permission as a Tier 2 (General) Migrant who has held Skilled Worker permission ever since may include guaranteed allowances, including London weighting, if they are applying to stay with the same sponsor and the date of application is before 1 December 2026.

The salary on the certificate of sponsorship must reflect only what counts. The route rules are in Appendix Skilled Worker, and the plain-English version is on GOV.UK.

Hours: part-time, and more than full-time

The going rate is pro-rated to your working pattern. For the general occupation codes the published going rate is based on a 37.5-hour week, and the rule is:

going rate × (weekly working hours stated by the sponsor ÷ 37.5)

So a going rate of £30,000 for 37.5 hours becomes £24,000 for a 30-hour week. Where a percentage of the going rate applies, the percentage is applied after that calculation. Health and education codes are pro-rated as set out in Appendix Skilled Occupations instead.

The general threshold is not pro-rated. A part-time worker still has to reach £41,700, or whichever general figure applies to them, in actual pay.

Long hours are capped. If you are sponsored to work more than 48 hours a week, only the first 48 count towards the salary thresholds. The rules give the example of someone working 60 hours a week at £15 an hour: they are treated as earning £37,440 (£15 × 48 × 52), not £46,800. Your full weekly hours are still used when checking your salary against the going rate. Where hours vary week to week, an average over a regular cycle of no more than 17 weeks is used, and unpaid rest weeks count towards that average.

When the salary has to be paid

Since 26 March 2026 the required salary must be paid in each pay period, at least monthly or as the contract specifies. The pay in each period must equal or exceed the going rate for every hour worked in that period. Over any three months, pay must be at least a quarter of the required annual salary; for people paid more often than monthly, pay over any 12 weeks must be at least 12/52 of it. An uneven working pattern is measured over 17 weeks instead. This closed off arrangements where a shortfall in one month was made up later in the year.

Salary sacrifice and deductions

Money you pay to your sponsor, or to a related organisation, is treated under paragraph SW 14.2A. Deductions from salary, loan repayments and investments are subtracted from your salary for these purposes, averaged over the period you are sponsored for.

The rules carve out a benefit you genuinely chose to take: money is not deducted where the payment is “not related to business costs, immigration costs or investment, but rather an additional benefit offer which the applicant has a genuine choice whether to take up, for example salary sacrifice arrangements”.

If your salary changes

• A pay rise does not need a new application by itself. Your sponsor records the change.
• A pay cut that takes you below the figure your permission was granted on is a change your sponsor must report to the Home Office, and permission can be cut short.
• A change of job or employer means applying to update your visa, and GOV.UK says you cannot change jobs or employer unless you do. Wait for the new permission before starting. See changing jobs on a Skilled Worker visa.

Two worked examples

A bonus does not help. A software developer is paid a basic salary of £40,000 with an annual bonus of up to £10,000. Only the £40,000 counts. The bonus is excluded by SW 14.2(b), guaranteed or not.

Part-time hours cut the going rate, not the threshold. Someone contracted for 30 hours a week in a code whose going rate is £30,000 has a pro-rated going rate of £24,000. They must still be paid the general threshold that applies to them, which is not reduced for part-time work.

Where to check the figures

Look up your occupation code in Appendix Skilled Occupations and the going rate in the going rates tables. Our Skilled Worker salary tool puts your figure and the published figures side by side.

Related guides:

• Skilled Worker salary threshold
• Going rate for Skilled Workers
• Skilled Worker requirements
• Salary sacrifice and pensions
• Certificate of sponsorship

Questions and answers