The Skilled Worker salary floor is the absolute minimum salary that applies to a sponsored role regardless of occupation — a candidate must clear this figure even where the job’s specific “going rate” would otherwise be lower. Sponsorship requires the higher of the two thresholds to be met, not just one of them, and getting this wrong is one of the most common reasons a Certificate of Sponsorship gets queried after the fact.

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What the floor actually is, and why it exists separately from the going rate

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Every Skilled Worker sponsorship is assessed against two salary tests at once. The first is a general threshold that applies across the entire route, regardless of what the job is. The second is an occupation-specific going rate, set per SOC code and based on typical UK earnings data for that occupation. A sponsored worker must be paid at least whichever of the two figures is higher for their role. The general floor exists so that even a genuinely low-paying occupation code cannot be used to sponsor someone below a baseline the Home Office considers acceptable across the whole route; the going rate exists so that a genuinely well-paid occupation cannot be sponsored at a token salary just because it happens to clear the general floor.

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Because the specific number moves periodically and differs by visa category and personal circumstances, this page deliberately does not quote a figure — always check the current threshold on GOV.UK’s Skilled Worker visa guidance before finalising an offer or assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship, since relying on a number from a previous hire or an old internal document is one of the more common ways employers get this wrong.

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Where the general floor doesn’t behave the way employers expect

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A handful of situations change how the general floor is applied, and each one is a place where a well-intentioned employer can get the calculation wrong:

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• Genuinely part-time roles. The floor is generally pro-rated against contracted hours, but the pro-rating has to be applied correctly — a role advertised as part-time but staffed with overtime expectations that push it closer to full-time hours can end up under-calculated if only the contracted hours are used.
• New entrants to the labour market. Workers who are early in their career — typically under a certain age, or moving from a Student or Graduate visa into their first Skilled Worker sponsorship — may be eligible for a reduced going rate under current rules, but this discount applies to the occupation-specific going rate, not to the separate general floor, which is a distinction employers frequently miss.
• Health and Care Worker sponsorship. Occupations sponsored under the Health and Care Worker visa route sit under a different salary framework from the general Skilled Worker route, reflecting NHS and social care pay structures. Employers moving a worker between a general Skilled Worker role and a Health and Care Worker role should re-check which threshold set actually applies rather than assuming continuity.
• Existing sponsored workers extending in the same role. Where a worker was already sponsored before a threshold increase and is extending their permission in the same job with the same employer, transitional provisions have historically allowed some workers to be assessed against the threshold that applied when they were first sponsored, rather than the current one. Whether this protection is available, and on what terms, depends on the specific rules in force at the time of the extension — check the current position on GOV.UK before assuming it applies.

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What counts toward the salary figure, and what doesn’t

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Only guaranteed, contractual elements of pay generally count toward meeting the salary floor — basic pay and any allowances that are a genuinely guaranteed part of the total package. Discretionary bonuses, most benefits in kind (housing, a car allowance, private healthcare), and pay that depends on performance or targets typically do not count, even where they form a meaningful part of what the worker actually takes home. Employers who build an offer around a bonus-heavy package sometimes discover at the sponsorship stage that the guaranteed base alone doesn’t clear the threshold. The safest approach is to check what current guidance says counts as salary before an offer letter goes out, not after.

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Why this catches employers out in practice

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The most common failure pattern isn’t a deliberate attempt to underpay a sponsored worker — it’s checking only one of the two thresholds and assuming that’s sufficient. A role with a modest going rate can still fail sponsorship if the offered salary sits below the general floor, and a role with a going rate comfortably above the floor can still fail if the SOC code was chosen to minimise the going rate rather than to genuinely reflect the job’s duties and seniority — a classification issue that also has knock-on consequences for Home Office compliance visits, since caseworkers specifically look for a mismatch between the stated occupation code and the actual duties being performed.

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Building this into your hiring process, not just your paperwork

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Confirming both thresholds needs to happen before an offer is extended, not after a Certificate of Sponsorship has already been assigned. A mismatch discovered late derails start dates, and in some cases requires a fresh CoS at real cost and delay. Whoever holds Level 1 User responsibility for your sponsor licence should be checking both figures as a standard step in the recruitment process, not treating it as a final compliance tick-box once an offer has already been made verbally.

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Evidence to keep on file

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Sponsors are expected to retain records showing how the salary decision was made — the job description, the SOC code assigned and the reasoning behind it, the going rate checked at the time, and confirmation the general floor was also met. This is exactly the kind of documentation that gets requested first in a compliance visit, and it is far easier to produce when it’s captured at the point of hire through structured document management than reconstructed afterwards from email threads.

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How Annaizu helps

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Annaizu’s sponsorship compliance software keeps the salary evidence for each Certificate of Sponsorship — the SOC code, the going rate checked, and the general floor confirmation — attached to the worker’s record rather than scattered across recruitment emails, and smart alerts flag upcoming extension dates where a threshold recheck may be needed.

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FAQs

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Does the general salary floor apply the same way to every visa category under Skilled Worker?

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No — some categories, including Health and Care Worker sponsorship and certain transitional cases for existing sponsored workers, sit under different or modified salary arrangements. Always confirm which framework applies to the specific worker and route before finalising a figure.

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Can an employer meet the general floor but still fail sponsorship on salary grounds?

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Yes — clearing the general floor is necessary but not sufficient. The role also has to meet its own occupation-specific going rate, and the higher of the two figures is what actually applies.

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Is the salary floor the same for a worker switching from another visa category in-country as for a new overseas hire?

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The underlying salary tests are broadly the same, but eligibility to switch in-country at all depends on the applicant’s current visa category — some categories do not permit switching into Skilled Worker from inside the UK, so that question needs answering before the salary calculation becomes relevant.

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What happens if a sponsored worker’s hours are reduced after they start?

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A reduction in hours that takes the worker’s pay below the applicable threshold is a change that generally needs to be reported and assessed — it is not something that can be quietly absorbed as a temporary arrangement.

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Do allowances for working unsociable hours or shift patterns count toward the floor?

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Only where they are a guaranteed, contractual part of pay rather than a variable or discretionary top-up — check the specific structure of the allowance against current guidance rather than assuming a shift premium automatically counts.

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Related: Skilled Worker going rates · Skilled Worker visa extensions · Care worker sponsorship rules

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GOV.UK references: Skilled Worker visa · Skilled Worker visa: your job · Sponsor duties and compliance guidance