Employer visa salary check

For nominations lodged between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027 the Specialist Skills Income Threshold is AUD 146,576; it applies only to the Specialist Skills stream.

Unless the nomination is in the Labour Agreement stream, a Skills in Demand nomination goes in the Specialist Skills stream when the occupation is in ANZSCO Major Group 1, 2, 4, 5 or 6 and the nominee's annual earnings (excluding non-monetary benefits) reach the specialist skills income threshold; otherwise it goes in the Core Skills stream, for an occupation on the Core Skills occupation list.

For the Specialist Skills stream the nominated occupation must match a six-digit ANZSCO code in Major Group 1, 2, 4, 5 or 6 (managers, professionals, community and personal service, clerical and administrative, and sales workers).

For nominations lodged between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027 the Core Skills Income Threshold is AUD 79,423, which applies to Core Skills stream 482 nominations and to 186 nominations.

For the Core Skills stream the nominated occupation must appear on the Core Skills Occupation List, which the Minister specifies in a legislative instrument together with each occupation's six-digit ANZSCO code.

The Core Skills Occupation List was announced on 3 December 2024 and covers 456 occupations chosen using Jobs and Skills Australia labour market analysis and stakeholder consultation.

When pay is below the earnings exemption level, the employer must show the annual market salary rate was worked out correctly, that the worker is paid no less than that rate, and that both the rate and the worker's pay (excluding non-monetary benefits) meet the relevant income threshold.

The income thresholds are indexed every 1 July, if the factor is above 1, by the ratio of average weekly ordinary time earnings (AWOTE) for the latest December quarter to the previous December quarter, worked to three decimal places and rounded to the nearest whole dollar.

The threshold that applies is fixed by the date the nomination is lodged: Home Affairs says anyone lodging on or after 1 July must meet that year's income threshold, and the 2026 increase does not reach nominations lodged earlier.

The 1 July 2026 indexation can be reproduced: AWOTE of 2,051.10 for November 2025 divided by 1,975.80 for November 2024 gives 1.0381, so the factor is 1.038, and 76,515 x 1.038 rounds to 79,423 for the CSIT/TSMIT while 141,210 x 1.038 rounds to 146,576 for the SSIT.