Sweden's work permit salary requirement in 2026

The Swedish Migration Agency requires a third country worker to be offered at least SEK 34,470 a month before a work permit can be granted, a rule that applies from 16 June 2026. The figure is 90 percent of the median salary, which the agency states as SEK 38,300. The salary must also match the Swedish collective agreement or practice in the occupation.

Two salary floors, not one

Employers planning a hire from outside the EU usually read the maintenance requirement as a single number and stop there. The Migration Agency tests two salary levels in parallel, and the application has to clear both.

The first floor is the maintenance requirement of SEK 34,470 a month. The Migration Agency derives it from the median salary of SEK 38,300 and applies it from 16 June 2026. The number is tied to wage statistics and moves when the statistics move, so a salary that just clears the floor this year can sit below it at the next adjustment. An employment intended to run for two years should not be planned on the margin.

The second floor is the conditions requirement in chapter 6, section 2 of the Swedish Aliens Act. Salary, insurance cover and the remaining terms of employment must be at least equivalent to the level set by a Swedish collective agreement or by practice in the occupation or industry. For a warehouse role in an agreement area where the entry rate sits above SEK 34,470, the collective agreement governs and the maintenance requirement does not. The lower number becomes irrelevant for that role.

The practical consequence is that an offer written at exactly SEK 34,470 is only safe in occupations where the industry level sits below it. In every other case the agreement decides the file, and an employer who copies the maintenance requirement into the offer of employment risks a refusal that looks like it came from nowhere.

Part time work does not lower the floor

The most expensive misunderstanding concerns working hours. The Migration Agency tests the requirement against the salary the worker is actually paid, not against a full time equivalent. A role at 60 percent with a full time salary of SEK 36,000 pays SEK 21,600 a month and fails the SEK 34,470 floor, even though the full time level sits above it.

The same logic catches seasonal arrangements with variable hours and roles where part of the pay sits in bonus or allowances. The Migration Agency counts the salary the employment guarantees. Variable elements that the contract does not guarantee do not carry the requirement.

Work the figure backwards. Fix the actual monthly salary first, check it against the collective agreement rate for the occupation, then set the working time percentage so that the paid salary sits above SEK 34,470 with room to spare. That order costs an hour of planning and saves a four to six month round at the Migration Agency, because a refusal on salary level means a fresh application and a fresh offer of employment.

What the requirement does to recruitment

The maintenance requirement shifts the centre of gravity in a hiring plan. Roles that could previously be staffed from outside the EU at the industry entry rate can no longer be staffed that way if the rate sits below SEK 34,470 a month. The employer's choice becomes concrete: raise the salary to a level that carries the permit, convert the role to full time, or recruit within the EU and EEA where the requirement does not apply.

Cost should be counted in full before that decision. Beyond salary there is the Migration Agency application fee, the insurance package the employer has to hold, travel and accommodation for the first weeks, and the internal time the file consumes. A permit granted on a salary at the edge of the floor also leaves no buffer for the next revision of the median, and an extension can then fail on a number that changed while the employment did not.

Processing time varies by occupation and case type. A comparison across destinations sits in the EU work permit timelines by country, and the duties that follow the employer through the life of a permit are set out in the employer sponsorship compliance chain. The refusal grounds that recur, salary level among them, are collected in the work permit refusal failure modes. Werklist works the chain from selection through employment for employers, described on the employers page.

The maintenance requirement is a number that is cheap to check and expensive to miss. An employer who fixes the actual monthly salary, reconciles it against the collective agreement and keeps margin above SEK 34,470 has removed the most common reason a Swedish work permit fails on paperwork.