Shortage Occupation List to Immigration Salary List: Employer Guide

The Shortage Occupation List (SOL) was retired under the April 2024 Skilled Worker reforms and replaced by the Immigration Salary List (ISL) — a narrower list that gives eligible roles a discount off the occupation's going rate, but no longer a reduced overall salary threshold or discounted visa fee.

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What actually changed

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Under the old SOL, shortage roles benefited from a lower general salary threshold and cheaper application fees alongside a going-rate discount, making sponsorship meaningfully cheaper for those occupations. The ISL kept only the going-rate discount piece. In practice, that means an occupation moving from SOL to ISL status became more expensive to sponsor even while still appearing on a shortage-style list — a change several employers only discovered when a Certificate of Sponsorship priced out higher than expected.

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A brief history behind the discount

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The shortage list mechanism goes back further than most employers realise. Under Tier 2 (General), shortage occupation status did more than shave a percentage off salary — it also exempted the employer from having to run a Resident Labour Market Test before advertising the role, at a time when that test was still a mandatory step for most sponsored hires. The Resident Labour Market Test was scrapped for all Tier 2/Skilled Worker sponsorship in December 2020, which quietly removed one of the SOL's biggest practical benefits years before the list itself was retired. By the time the ISL replaced the SOL in 2024, the remaining value of shortage status had already narrowed down to what it is today: a discount on the going rate calculation, nothing more. Employers who sponsored under the old Tier 2 rules and still think of shortage status as a broader exemption are working from an outdated mental model.

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How the going-rate discount works now

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An occupation on the ISL still requires the sponsor to pay whichever is higher of the general salary floor and the relevant occupation-specific going rate, but that going rate is discounted rather than waived. The salary floor itself is unaffected by ISL status — it's a separate, harder minimum. The Migration Advisory Committee reviews the ISL periodically and the list is smaller and more tightly targeted than the old SOL was, so an occupation's presence on it should never be assumed to carry over year to year.

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Where employers most often trip up is assuming the ISL discount stacks freely with every other going-rate reduction available under the rules — a new entrant rate, a PhD-related allowance, or a discount for a role on the health and care visa route. Whether and how these discounts combine depends on the specific combination in play, and the safest approach is to work through the current gov.uk going rate tables for the exact SOC code rather than assume last year's combined figure still applies.

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Occupations sponsors should keep checking

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Care workers and senior care workers were added to the ISL as part of the same reform package, alongside a handful of construction, engineering, and fishing roles — see current guidance in the sponsorship information collection for the live list. Anyone sponsoring in the care sector or relying on ISL status for an existing role should re-verify SOC code eligibility at each new CoS assignment, not rely on last year's approval as proof it still qualifies — the transition from Tier 2 through to today's rules has shown how quickly these lists move.

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Practical checks before assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship

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Because ISL status changes the salary figure a sponsor is legally required to pay, treating it as a quick tick-box before assigning a CoS is a mistake. A more reliable process looks like this:

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• Confirm the worker's SOC code is currently listed on the ISL on the date the CoS is assigned, not the date the job offer was made — the two can be weeks or months apart.
• Pull the going rate for that SOC code from the current gov.uk table, since going rates are updated independently of ISL status and can move even when a role's ISL eligibility doesn't.
• Calculate the discounted going rate against the general salary floor and pay whichever figure is higher, then keep a dated note of that calculation with the CoS record.
• Repeat the same check at extension or switching, rather than assuming an approved starting salary remains compliant for the life of the sponsorship.

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What goes wrong when this is missed

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Getting the ISL calculation wrong cuts two ways, and neither is a small administrative slip. Overstating the discount and underpaying the sponsored worker relative to the true required salary is a sponsor duty breach that can surface at a compliance visit or renewal, in the same way other salary and going-rate failures do — see our guide to Home Office enforcement visits for how that kind of finding typically escalates. Understating the discount and overpaying isn't a compliance breach, but it does mean a business is paying more than the rules require, sometimes for years, because nobody rechecked the calculation after the initial CoS was assigned. Neither outcome is likely to be caught by chance — it needs to be built into the CoS assignment process itself, not left to individual judgement at the point a form is filled in.

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FAQs

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Does ISL status still reduce the visa application fee? No — unlike the old SOL, ISL status only discounts the going-rate salary calculation; it does not reduce the Home Office application fee or Immigration Skills Charge.

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How often is the Immigration Salary List reviewed? The Migration Advisory Committee reviews it periodically rather than on a fixed annual cycle, so employers should check current status before each sponsorship rather than assuming continuity.

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If a role loses ISL status, does it affect workers already sponsored under it? A worker already assigned a CoS and granted a visa isn't retroactively affected, but the sponsor should not assume the same discount will still apply at that worker's next extension or switch of employer — eligibility is checked fresh each time.

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Where can employers check whether a specific SOC code is currently on the ISL? The current list and going rate tables sit in the sponsorship information collection on gov.uk rather than in any third-party summary, precisely because both are updated more often than most employers expect.