The UK government has said that the minimum salary for skilled worker visa applicants will go up. This comes at a time when UK companies are watching their costs. All UK workers got a rise in their national living wage, which caused the price to go up.

The increase doesn’t go back in time, so companies don’t have to raise the wages of workers who are already on skilled worker visas until those workers apply to extend their skilled worker visas.

Until skilled worker visa applicants are hired

If your business is in the process of hiring a skilled worker visa applicant, you can continue to offer the sponsored job at the previous minimum salary level as long as the certificate of sponsorship is issued before April 12, 2023. For certificates issued on or after April 12, the new minimum salary threshold must be met for your sponsored recruit to be qualified for a skilled worker visa.

The new salary number for applicants for skilled worker visas in 2023

Most skilled worker visa applications will need a higher minimum gross annual salary, which will go up in the following ways:

• The pay went up from £25,600 to £26,200 gross per year, a rise of £600.
• The base hourly rate went up from £10.10 to £10.75.
• The minimum gross yearly salary for a job that requires a PhD has gone up from £23,040 to £23,580.
• The minimum gross yearly salary for jobs on the shortage occupation list, some STEM and health care jobs, and new recruits who are considered “new entrants” goes up from £20,480 to £20,960.
• Changes in going rate

When figuring out the minimum salary, companies need to look at both the set minimum salary and the going rate.

The government has announced new going rates for jobs with normal occupational classification codes. Instead of a 39-hour work week, these rates are based on a 37.5-hour work week.

If your person is going to work more than 37.5 hours a week, you will need to figure out their pay pro rata.

New rules on how to figure out a salary for immigration

If you hire skilled worker visa applicants for jobs with odd hours and different pay to match, you need to know about the new immigration rules on how to figure out a worker’s salary for the purpose of sponsoring a skilled worker visa application.

These are the new rules:

Work over 48 hours in some weeks can count towards the salary thresholds, as long as the average over a regular cycle (which can be less than 17 weeks but no more than 17 weeks) is not more than 48 hours a week. Any unpaid rest weeks count towards the average salary when figuring out if the salary thresholds are met. Any unpaid rest weeks do not count as absences from work for the purposes of the rules.

Contact me:

If you want to instruct me, my name is Atty Lindoven Magsino, BSc, MBA, GDL, LLM, Solicitor at MBM Solicitors located at 83A First Floor, South Road, Southall, UB1 1SQ, England, United Kingdom. Telephone: 02035002141. Fax 02085710811. Mobile: 07446 888 377. Email: don@mbmsolicitors.com or attydonmagsino@gmail.com