JAKARTA - The Australian government implemented an automatic 3.8% increase to the minimum income thresholds for major employer-sponsored skilled visas on July 1, from AUD 76,515 to AUD 79,423.

Sponsoring employers must now meet higher baseline salary requirements for newly arriving foreign professionals, according to updated administrative rules issued by the Department of Home Affairs. The adjustments are designed to keep skilled migration pathways aligned with national wage growth.

The new framework mandates that the Core Skills Income Threshold has risen from AUD 76,515 to AUD 79,423. This higher requirement applies directly to all new nomination applications for the Subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa and the Subclass 186 Employer Nomination Scheme submitted on or after the implementation date.

Concurrently, the Specialist Skills Income Threshold for highly compensated executive and professional roles increased from AUD 141,210 to AUD 146,576. Current visa holders and applications already lodged before the transition remain unaffected.

A third threshold, the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold, also rose from AUD 76,515 to AUD 79,423. It governs nominations for the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional visa (subclass 494) and the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187).

The automatic indexation formula used the latest full-year wage metrics published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The bureau recorded a 3.8% annual rise in Average Weekly Ordinary Time Earnings in its November 2025 data release, which established the calculation baseline for the current financial year.

This upward change follows the historic end of a decade-long policy freeze that had capped the previous migration income threshold at AUD 53,900 until mid-2023.

Australia's temporary skilled migration program grew sharply in 2025, according to the Department of Home Affairs. Primary visa holders under the subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa, which replaced the Temporary Skill Shortage visa in December 2024, reached 112,640 as of 31 December 2025, up from 87,160 a year earlier, a 29.2% rise.

India, the Philippines and the UK remained the top source countries, with 17,660, 17,280 and 11,570 primary holders respectively. Primary applications granted in the year to date hit 34,360, up 9.8% from 31,290.

Migration lawyers at BDO Australia warned that firms failing to integrate the new figures into their recruitment budgets face nomination refusals if the offered salary sits below the new thresholds.