The Migration Advisory Committee's technical note of 19 May 2026 recommends smoothing occupation-specific salary thresholds across three years of data. It updates the 2020 note and focuses on the Skilled Worker route.
Key facts
- Who: Skilled Worker route; the note says the same principles for smoothing occupation-specific thresholds apply across other routes
- From: Not stated in the source. The note is a recommended methodology, and the Home Office sets the salary thresholds.
- Source: Calculating salary thresholds: technical notes
Updates the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) technical note of 14 July 2020.
The note sets out the methodology the MAC recommends for calculating salary thresholds. It states: "It is the responsibility of the Home Office to set the salary thresholds." It is therefore a recommended method, and the source does not say it changes the Immigration Rules.
Salary requirements are the higher of a general threshold and an occupation-specific threshold, except for some largely public sector occupations where thresholds follow national pay scales (paragraph 1).
General threshold. The note calculates it as a chosen percentile of full-time annual earnings across all eligible occupations, using the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). Setting it at the 30th percentile for eligible RQF6+ non-pay-scale occupations gives £44,000 from ASHE 2025, rounded to the nearest £100 (paragraph 6). The 2020 note used the 25th percentile, which gave £25,600 from ASHE 2019.
Occupation-specific thresholds. These are set at a chosen percentile for each 4-digit Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code. Where the Office for National Statistics does not publish an estimate, two methods fill the gap. Method (a) applies the average historic ratio of the median to the 25th percentile. Method (b) applies the average discount or premium against the wider occupation group. Method (a) is preferred (paragraph 11).
Smoothing. The new element is in paragraph 13. The smoothed threshold is a weighted average of the current year's unsmoothed threshold and the two preceding years' thresholds. Earlier years are first uprated using the change in the general threshold. The weights are 0.5 for the current year, 0.3 for the previous year and 0.2 for two years prior. The procedure applies to all occupations, irrespective of sample size. The note says smoothing reduces the risk of sharp annual movements in requirements for employers (paragraph 12).
The note's worked example for IT business analysts, architects and systems designers (SOC 2133) gives a smoothed threshold of £45,400, against an unsmoothed 2025 figure of £45,860.
What this means for applicants
The note sets out a recommended methodology and does not itself set any salary requirement. It gives no date from which the method would be used. The Home Office sets the thresholds. The £44,000 and £45,400 figures are illustrations from the note, not in-force requirements.
Related guide
Skilled Worker visa salary requirements
Sources
- Calculating salary thresholds: technical notes, Migration Advisory Committee, GOV.UK, 19 May 2026