(AUSTRALIA) — Australia raised its skilled visa income thresholds by 3.8% from July 1, 2026, lifting the salary floor for new employer-sponsored visa nominations under the country’s main skilled migration pathways.

The Department of Home Affairs tied the increase to growth in Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings, or AWOTE, and said the policy aims to keep skilled migrants on the same pay footing as Australian workers and stop sponsorship from undercutting local wages.

Nominations lodged on or after July 1, 2026 must meet the new thresholds. A nomination that falls below the applicable salary level may face refusal or may not be validly lodged.

Home Affairs set the Core Skills Income Threshold, or CSIT, at AUD79,423 for nomination applications lodged between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027. That lifts the threshold from AUD76,515.

Officials set the Specialist Skills Income Threshold, or SSIT, at AUD146,576, up from AUD141,210. They set the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold, or TSMIT, at AUD79,423, also up from AUD76,515.

Those figures affect several visa streams at once. The CSIT increase applies to employer-sponsored visa nominations in the subclass 482 Core Skills stream and the subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme, while the SSIT increase applies to the subclass 482 Specialist Skills stream.

The TSMIT increase applies to nomination applications for the subclass 494 Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa and the legacy subclass 187 Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme. In each case, the operative date is the nomination lodgement date, not the date of visa grant or the date a worker first accepted a role.

Salary remains a core nomination requirement, not a secondary compliance step. Employers must generally show that the nominated worker will receive at least the relevant threshold, and in many cases they must also satisfy the Annual Market Salary Rate, or AMSR, requirement.

That market rate test sets a separate floor. If an Australian worker in the same role and labour market would earn more than the threshold, the employer must pay the higher market salary rather than rely on the threshold alone.

A software engineer nominated under the subclass 482 Core Skills stream after July 1, 2026, for example, must clear AUD79,423. The employer must also show that the salary matches the market rate for that job.

The change largely leaves existing visa holders untouched. Home Affairs applies the higher thresholds mainly to new nominations lodged on or after July 1, 2026, while nominations lodged before that date generally remain assessed against the earlier salary settings.

That timing split matters for employers with offers in progress and for workers waiting on paperwork. A nomination filed before July 1, 2026 fell under the older thresholds, but a nomination filed on or after that date must meet the new ones.

The subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa now carries two distinct salary bars. The Core Skills stream uses the new CSIT of AUD79,423, while the Specialist Skills stream uses the higher SSIT of AUD146,576.

The gap between those streams is wide, and the salary itself helps determine where a nomination fits. A job offer alone does not answer that question if the guaranteed annual salary falls short of the applicable threshold or fails the market rate test.

Permanent employer-sponsored pathways also feel the change. Many subclass 186 nominations must now meet the updated CSIT of AUD79,423, subject to the stream and nomination rules that govern that visa.

That affects workers who plan to move from a temporary subclass 482 visa to permanent residence through subclass 186. Where a salary package sits close to the threshold, employers may need to revise it before they lodge the permanent nomination.

Regional sponsorship cases also face a higher floor. The subclass 494 visa now uses a TSMIT of AUD79,423 for nominations lodged between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027.

Regional employers often work in labour markets with lower prevailing wages than those in major cities. Even so, they must still meet both the threshold and the market salary rule where that market rate sits above the threshold.

Home Affairs’ updated figures also close off a set of earlier projected numbers that circulated before the change took effect. Figures such as AUD79,499 for CSIT and TSMIT and AUD146,717 for SSIT should not be used for current nominations.

The official figures for the current period are AUD79,423 for CSIT, AUD146,576 for SSIT and AUD79,423 for TSMIT. Those are the numbers that apply to nominations lodged from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027.

The increase puts fresh pressure on businesses that prepared salary packages under the earlier settings. A proposed salary of AUD78,000, which sat close to the old CSIT and TSMIT, now falls below both new thresholds.

Employers with pending cases need to review more than the headline number. They need to identify whether a role falls under CSIT, SSIT or TSMIT, check whether the salary meets the relevant threshold, and ensure employment contracts, payscale evidence and nomination documents line up with that figure.

Labour agreement concessions and regional settings may still shape an individual case, but the general salary floors now sit higher across the standard pathways. That makes timing, classification and payroll accuracy central to employer-sponsored visa nominations filed in the new program year.

Applicants face the same arithmetic from the other side of the process. A worker considering a sponsored role needs to know which visa subclass and stream the employer will use, the guaranteed annual salary attached to the offer, and whether that salary clears both the threshold and the market rate.

That check matters before an offer is accepted, not after a nomination runs into trouble. Superannuation treatment and the planned lodgement date can also shape whether a package meets the rule in force.

Australia adjusts skilled visa income thresholds in line with wage data to keep migration settings aligned with domestic pay levels. This year’s 3.8% rise, driven by Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings, leaves the subclass 482, 186, 494 and 187 programs operating under higher salary bars for the 2026-27 period.

The effect is direct and immediate for new cases: salaries that passed last year may fail this year, and offers that looked viable before July 1, 2026 now need a second look against AUD79,423 or AUD146,576. In Australia’s skilled migration system, the wage figure on the nomination has become one of the first tests a case must clear.