How the Skilled Worker salary rules work
To be sponsored on a UK Skilled Worker visa your salary has to satisfy two pay tests at once. The first is a general salary floor that applies across the route. The second is the going rate for your specific job, a figure the Home Office publishes for every eligible occupation code based on what people in that role typically earn. You must meet both, so the requirement that actually binds you is whichever of the two is higher. For a well-paid profession the going rate usually leads; for a lower-paid role the general floor often does.
The checker above makes that comparison for you. When you choose an occupation it fills in a sample going rate, and you can type in the exact figure from the GOV.UK table if you have it. It then applies any discount you select, compares your offer against the higher of the two thresholds, and tells you the gap in plain numbers so you know what a recruiter would need to change.
Discounts that lower the threshold
Several groups can be sponsored below the standard floor. New entrants, which includes many applicants under 26, recent graduates and people moving into a postdoctoral role, can use a reduced floor and only 70 percent of the going rate. Jobs on the Immigration Salary List use a lower floor and 80 percent of the going rate. Health and care roles and posts paid on a national pay scale, such as NHS jobs, are assessed against their own lower threshold. Picking the right discount in the tool can change the verdict completely, so it is worth checking which category genuinely applies to your offer.
Why going rates change with hours
Published going rates assume a standard working week of around 37.5 hours. If your contract is for more or fewer hours, the rate is adjusted in proportion, although there is a cap on how much extra paid hours can help. Salary also has to be guaranteed base pay; bonuses, allowances and overtime generally do not count toward meeting the threshold. Keeping those points in mind helps explain why an offer that looks generous on paper can still fall short of the rule.
What to do if your offer is below the threshold
If the result shows a shortfall, you have a few realistic options. The simplest is to ask whether the employer can raise the base salary to the required figure, since the gap is shown precisely. You can also check whether you qualify for a discount you had not considered, such as new-entrant status, which can lower the bar substantially. In some cases a different but closely related occupation code carries a lower going rate, or a role genuinely sits on the Immigration Salary List. Re-run the checker after each change so you can see exactly when the offer crosses the line.
Treat this as a planning tool rather than a final decision. Salary floors and going rates are updated periodically, and your exact code matters, so always confirm the live figures on GOV.UK and with your sponsor before you submit an application.