Skilled Worker Going Rates Explained: The Binding Number
Quick answer
A going rate is the occupation-specific minimum salary for a Skilled Worker role, published by the Home Office per occupation code. Your salary must meet the higher of the general salary floor and the occupation's going rate, so the going rate is often the number that actually decides the outcome. Published going rates assume a 37.5-hour week and are pro-rated for other hours, which means the figure in the table is rarely the figure that applies to a specific job. These figures were verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026 and change with earnings data, so re-check the current table before you rely on them.
Key takeaways
- The test is "the higher of the floor and the going rate", never the lower.
- Going rates are published per occupation code in the GOV.UK going rates
table, last updated 22 July 2025 (verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026).
- Published rates assume a 37.5-hour week and are pro-rated up or down for
other contracted hours.
- Some applicants pay a percentage of the going rate — 70%, 80%, or 90% —
but the general floor still has to be cleared.
- A sponsor licence is permission to sponsor, not a promise to sponsor any
role or any person, and clearing a going rate does not change that.
What a going rate actually is
The definition
Every job that can be sponsored on the Skilled Worker route is mapped to an occupation code. Each eligible code carries a published salary figure — the going rate — which reflects typical earnings for that kind of work. The Home Office publishes those figures in a single table covering every eligible occupation code Source: GOV.UK — Skilled Worker visa: going rates for eligible occupation codes.
The going rate is not a suggestion, a benchmark, or a market average that an employer can argue about. For sponsorship purposes it is a floor attached to the job, in the same way the general threshold is a floor attached to the route.
Two floors, one test
The Skilled Worker route has a general salary floor of £41,700 a year, with a lower floor of £33,400 for specified groups Source: GOV.UK — Skilled Worker visa: your job. Both figures were verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026.
The salary test then runs like this:
- Work out which general floor applies to the applicant.
- Look up the going rate for the occupation code.
- Take the higher of the two.
That third step is where most self-assessments go wrong. People memorise £41,700, see an advertised salary above it, and stop. If the occupation's going rate is higher, the higher number is the one that binds — and the role does not qualify as advertised, however comfortably it clears the general floor.
Our guide to Skilled Worker salary thresholds covers the general floors in detail. This guide is about the other half of the test.
Why the route works this way
A single national salary floor would make some occupations trivially easy to sponsor and others impossible. Going rates exist so that the salary test tracks what a job is actually worth, rather than treating a chief executive and a chef as interchangeable. That design has a consequence worth internalising: there is no such thing as "the Skilled Worker salary" in the abstract. There is only the salary for a specific occupation code, for a specific applicant, at a specific number of contracted hours.
The 37.5-hour rule almost nobody checks
How the published figure is expressed
The going rates published on GOV.UK are based on a 37.5-hour working week, and are pro-rated for jobs with different working hours (verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026) Source: GOV.UK — going rates for eligible occupation codes.
This single sentence does more damage to amateur salary checks than any other rule in the route, because it means the number in the table is a rate, not a target. Two jobs with the same occupation code and the same advertised salary can land on opposite sides of the line purely because one is contracted at 35 hours and the other at 40.
Pro-rata runs in both directions
The pro-rata adjustment is not a discount mechanism. It is arithmetic that scales with contracted hours:
- Fewer than 37.5 hours. The applicable going rate goes down. A 30-hour
contract is 80% of the reference week, so the required figure is 80% of the published rate.
- More than 37.5 hours. The applicable going rate goes up. A 40-hour
contract is above the reference week, so the required figure rises in proportion.
The general floor and the pro-rated going rate are then compared, and the higher number is the one to meet. Pro-rating the going rate downwards does not pro-rate the general floor downwards with it.
A worked example
The figures below are illustrative arithmetic on a published rate, not a ruling on any real job.
Take an occupation with a published going rate of £40,000 a year at 37.5 hours, and an applicant who qualifies for the £41,700 general floor.
- Contract at 37.5 hours. Going rate £40,000; general floor £41,700. The
higher number is £41,700, so the floor binds.
- Contract at 30 hours. Going rate pro-rates to £32,000. The general floor
is still £41,700, so the floor binds even harder — a part-time contract does not shrink the general threshold.
- Contract at 45 hours. Going rate pro-rates to £48,000. Now the going
rate binds, and an advertised salary of £44,000 fails, even though it clears £41,700 comfortably.
Same occupation, same published rate, three different answers. This is why "does this job meet the threshold?" is not a question that can be answered from the salary alone.
Reading a going rates row
What the table gives you
The going rates table lists occupation codes with their salary figures. It carries more than one column, because the route also recognises reduced requirements for certain applicants — so a single code shows both a standard figure and a lower figure that applies to the discounted categories.
Three rows, verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026:
| Occupation code | Standard rate | Lower rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1111 — chief executives and senior officials | £88,100 | £60,000 |
| 2123 — electrical engineers | £58,700 | £47,100 |
| 5434 — chefs | £33,400 | £25,000 |
Source: GOV.UK — going rates for eligible occupation codes
What those three rows tell you
The spread is the point. An electrical engineering role at £45,000 clears the general floor for a new-entrant applicant but sits below the standard going rate of £58,700 — so for an applicant on the standard route it fails on the going rate, not on the floor. A chef role at £34,000 clears the standard going rate of £33,400 by a small margin, and a chief executive role at £70,000 — a salary most people would call generous — falls well short of £88,100.
None of those outcomes can be predicted from the general floor. All three depend on the code.
Codes are assigned, not chosen
The occupation code is decided by what the job actually involves, not by the job title in the advert. "Product Ninja" and "Growth Wizard" are not occupation codes. Employers and their advisers map the role to a code based on duties, and that mapping determines the going rate. A candidate reading an ad can usually guess the likely code from the duties, but a guess is what it is — useful for filtering, not for deciding.
Who pays a percentage of the going rate
The reduced categories
Some applicants may be paid a percentage of the going rate rather than the whole thing. The percentages published by GOV.UK, verified on 6 August 2026, are Source: GOV.UK — Skilled Worker visa: when you can be paid less:
| Category | Share of the going rate | Salary floor that still applies |
|---|---|---|
| New entrant (including under 26, Student or Graduate switchers) | 70% | £33,400 |
| Relevant STEM PhD | 80% | £33,400 |
| Relevant non-STEM PhD | 90% | £37,500 |
| Immigration Salary List occupation | Going rate in full | £33,400 |
| Postdoctoral codes 2111–2115, 2119, 2162 and 2311 | 70% | £33,400 |
The trap in that table
The percentage applies to the going rate. It does not apply to the general floor. A new entrant in an occupation with a £60,000 going rate needs 70% of £60,000, which is £42,000 — and because that exceeds £33,400, £42,000 is the number to meet. The reduced floor is not a shortcut past a high going rate; it is only relevant when the going rate calculation lands below it.
Read the two figures as a pair every time: the percentage of the going rate, and the floor that goes with the category. Whichever is higher is the answer.
The Immigration Salary List does not discount the going rate
This one is widely misreported. An occupation on the Immigration Salary List unlocks the £33,400 floor, but the going rate for the occupation still has to be met in full (verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026). The list changes which general floor applies; it does not reduce the occupation's own number. Our guide to the Immigration Salary List covers what the list does and does not do, including the temporary shortage arrangements that expire on 31 December 2026.
Why the going rate is so often the binding number
The structural reason
The general floor is one number for the whole route. Going rates are hundreds of numbers, one per occupation, derived from what people in that occupation actually earn. For any occupation that pays above the general population average — most professional and technical work — the going rate sits above £41,700 by construction. That makes the going rate the operative test for a large share of the roles international candidates are looking at.
What that changes about a job search
If the going rate is usually the binding number, then a salary filter set to "£41,700 and above" is the wrong filter. It passes roles that will fail and creates false confidence in a shortlist. The more useful habit is to work in two steps: filter on the general floor to remove the obviously impossible, and then check the code-specific rate before investing time in an application.
For the ad-reading side of that filter, our guide to what the register tells you about an employer covers the other half of the check: whether the organisation on the advert is licensed at all.
What changed in July 2025 and why it still matters
The skill threshold moved
On 22 July 2025 the skill threshold for the Skilled Worker route rose to RQF level 6 — degree level — implemented through a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules. The explanatory memorandum describes the effect as "a reduction of around 180 eligible occupations" (verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026) Source: GOV.UK — Explanatory memorandum to HC 997.
Why a skill change is a salary story
Because eligibility comes first. A going rate only matters for an occupation that is eligible for the route. Around 180 occupations left the list in July 2025, which means guidance written before that date can send you looking up a going rate for a code that no longer qualifies. Finding the number is not the same as the role being sponsorable.
The same memorandum records that existing Skilled Workers are exempt from the skill-level rise, and that there are no transitional arrangements for salary (verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026). Salary rules bite immediately; skill rules did not.
The Temporary Shortage List
Some occupations below the new skill threshold retained access through the Temporary Shortage List, covering RQF 3–5 occupations judged important to the Industrial Strategy. The list grants access to the route; it does not grant salary discounts, and dependants are not permitted. Both the Temporary Shortage List and the expanded Immigration Salary List run to 31 December 2026 Source: GOV.UK — Temporary Shortage List Stage 1 report.
So for a Temporary Shortage List occupation, the going rate applies in full. "On a shortage list" and "cheaper to sponsor" are different claims, and only one of them is true.
How to check a going rate for a specific job
The method
- Read the duties, not the title. Work out what the job actually
involves, in plain terms.
- Identify the likely occupation code from those duties. Treat it as a
working assumption until the employer confirms it.
- Open the current GOV.UK going rates table and find the code. Do not use
a figure quoted on a third-party site without checking the date it was verified.
- Read across the row. Note the standard figure and the lower figure.
- Apply your category. New entrant, PhD, Immigration Salary List, or
standard — and take the right percentage.
- Pro-rate for contracted hours against the 37.5-hour reference week.
- Compare against your general floor and take the higher number.
- Compare that number against the offer, not against the advertised
range.
Where the method stops
Step two is a guess until an employer confirms the code, and the code decides everything downstream. That is a real limit, not false modesty. A candidate can narrow the field, rule out impossible roles, and ask a much better question at interview — but only the sponsor knows which code it will assign and at what salary it will assign the certificate. Our guide to the certificate of sponsorship explains where that decision actually gets recorded.
The question worth asking
Once a conversation is live, one question does most of the work: "Which occupation code would this role be sponsored under, and at what salary?" It is a factual question an employer that sponsors regularly can answer, and the answer settles the going rate question in one line.
Common mistakes
The six that cost applications
- Comparing the offer to £41,700 only. The general floor is one half of a
two-part test.
- Ignoring contracted hours. A 40-hour contract raises the applicable
going rate above the published figure.
- Assuming a shortage list means a discount. It changes the general
floor, not the going rate.
- Applying a percentage to the wrong number. The 70%, 80% and 90%
reductions apply to the going rate, not to the general floor.
- Using a going rate from an out-of-date table. The table is republished
as earnings data and rules change; a figure without a verification date is not a figure.
- Treating "total package" as salary. Allowances, bonuses and equity are
not the same as base pay for these tests.
The mistake underneath all six
Every one of them is a version of the same error: treating a salary number as a property of the job advert rather than a property of the combination of occupation code, applicant category, and contracted hours. Change any one of those three and the answer changes.
What a going rate does not tell you
A going rate is a salary threshold. It is not:
- A statement that the employer will sponsor. A sponsor licence is
permission to sponsor; it is not a promise to sponsor a specific role or a specific person, and meeting a going rate does not create an obligation.
- A prediction of what the job pays. Employers routinely pay above the
going rate, and the rate says nothing about what is negotiable.
- A guide to whether an application will succeed. The salary test is one
requirement among several, and the decision belongs to the Home Office.
- A substitute for the current table. Rates move with earnings data.
The bottom line
The general salary floor is the number everyone remembers, and the going rate is the number that usually decides. Read the two together, in the right order: find the occupation code, read its published rate, apply your category's percentage, pro-rate for the contracted hours, then compare against the general floor and take whichever is higher. Every figure on this page was verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026 and will change again — check the current table on the day it matters. This is information about published rules, not immigration advice, and nothing here is a prediction about any employer or any application. For your own situation, confirm the current figures on GOV.UK or speak to a regulated adviser.
Sources
- Skilled Worker visa: going rates for eligible occupation codes — GOV.UK
- Skilled Worker visa: your job — GOV.UK
- Skilled Worker visa: when you can be paid less — GOV.UK
- Explanatory memorandum to the statement of changes to the Immigration Rules HC 997 — GOV.UK
- Temporary Shortage List Stage 1 report — GOV.UK
- Skilled Worker visa: Immigration Salary List — GOV.UK
- Register of licensed sponsors: workers — GOV.UK
Frequently asked questions
What is a going rate for a Skilled Worker visa?
It is the occupation-specific minimum salary published by the Home Office for each eligible occupation code. Your salary must meet the higher of the general salary floor and the occupation's going rate.
Do I need to meet the going rate or the salary threshold?
The higher of the two. Meeting one and missing the other is not enough, and the route does not average them.
Where are Skilled Worker going rates published?
In the GOV.UK table of going rates for eligible occupation codes. That page was last updated on 22 July 2025 as at our verification on 6 August 2026.
Are going rates based on full-time hours?
They are based on a 37.5-hour week and are pro-rated for jobs with different working hours. A 40-hour contract raises the applicable figure; a 30-hour contract lowers it.
Does part-time work lower the salary I need?
It lowers the pro-rated going rate, but it does not lower the general salary floor. In practice the general floor often becomes the binding number on a part-time contract.
Can new entrants pay less than the going rate?
New entrants may be paid 70% of the going rate, subject to a floor of £33,400 (verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026). Both conditions apply, so the higher of the two figures is what has to be met.
Do PhD holders get a reduced going rate?
A relevant STEM PhD attracts 80% of the going rate with a £33,400 floor, and a relevant non-STEM PhD attracts 90% with a £37,500 floor. Whether a PhD is "relevant" is decided against the job, not the qualification alone.
Does the Immigration Salary List reduce the going rate?
No. An Immigration Salary List occupation unlocks the £33,400 general floor, and the going rate for the occupation still has to be met in full.
What is the going rate for a chef?
Occupation code 5434 shows a standard rate of £33,400 and a lower rate of £25,000, verified against GOV.UK on 6 August 2026. Check the current table before relying on it, and confirm the code with the employer.
How do I find my occupation code?
Work from the duties in the job description rather than the job title, then match them to a code in the GOV.UK table. Treat the result as a working assumption and ask the employer to confirm which code it would sponsor under.
Why did some occupations stop being eligible?
The skill threshold rose to RQF level 6 on 22 July 2025, and the explanatory memorandum describes a reduction of around 180 eligible occupations. A going rate is only useful for a code that is still eligible.
Does being on the Temporary Shortage List make sponsorship cheaper?
No. The Temporary Shortage List grants route access for certain RQF 3–5 occupations, with no salary discounts and no dependants, and it runs to 31 December 2026.
Do bonuses count towards the going rate?
The tests look at contractual basic pay. Discretionary bonuses, allowances and equity are treated differently, so ask for the base salary in writing before comparing anything to a going rate.
How often do going rates change?
They are republished as earnings data and the Immigration Rules change. That is why the correct answer to "what is the going rate for X?" is always the figure in the current table, checked on the day you use it.
Does meeting the going rate oblige an employer to sponsor?
No. The salary test is one requirement. The employer decides whether to sponsor a role at all, and the Home Office decides the application. A licence is permission to sponsor, not a promise to sponsor.
Can an employer pay above the going rate?
Yes, and many do. The going rate is a floor for immigration purposes, not a cap, a recommendation, or a market rate the employer has to match.
Last reviewed 2026-08-08 by UK Sponsor Guide Editorial Team. Figures on this page are checked against GOV.UK on the review date. Rules, fees, and salary floors change — always confirm against GOV.UK before you act. Spotted an error?
Check an employer against the UK sponsor register — free
- The GOV.UK register of licensed sponsors is the official list of organisations permitted to sponsor.
- Look up the employer's legal name before concluding anything — brand names miss.
- A licence is permission to sponsor, not a promise to sponsor any role or person.
The register is free, official, and public — every tool uses the same data. This site is information only, not immigration advice.
Sources
- Skilled Worker visa: going rates for eligible occupation codes — GOV.UK
- Skilled Worker visa: your job — GOV.UK
- Skilled Worker visa: when you can be paid less — GOV.UK
- Explanatory memorandum to the statement of changes to the Immigration Rules HC 997 — GOV.UK
- Temporary Shortage List Stage 1 report — GOV.UK
- Skilled Worker visa: Immigration Salary List — GOV.UK
- Register of licensed sponsors: workers — GOV.UK