Changes in immigration regulations in the UK, in force from April 12, 2023, significantly affect the remuneration, as well as the rates of remuneration that migrants must receive in order for their applications to be approved by British officials.
What has changed in terms of legislation?
The UK legislature made the following increases:
- The Skilled Worker general threshold is now £26,200 pa
- The minimum hourly rate under the new regulations is £10.75
- New workers and people sponsored to work in a deficit profession will have to be paid at least £20,960 a year
- The Global Business Mobility Senior or Specialist Worker threshold is currently £45,800 pa
In addition, a number of changes have been made to the method of calculating salaries:
It is now believed that UK annual salaries will be calculated on the more common 37.5 hour work week scale. This is because the contractual amount of salary for work in the majority of employment contracts in Great Britain is charged on the basis of the working time per week indicated above. So far, salaries for work have been calculated on the basis of the slightly less common 39-hour working week, which was reflected in the legislation that was recently changed.
The British legislator paid special attention to the fact that so far the regulations concerning the calculation of remuneration for work had been in force even when the migrant was employed in a shift system. The result of this was to lead to the effects of calculating remuneration in an incorrect way. In short, salary received for work that is done over the 48-hour limit in any given week can still be taken into account. However, a prerequisite in this case is that the migrant does not work more than 48 hours on average in a regular period of up to 17 weeks.
What do sponsors need to pay attention to?
1. While the changes do not affect migrants who are already in work, those whose earnings are close to the previous threshold are entitled to request an increase when their contract is renewed to have their application approved by UK officials.
2. Make the necessary effort to ensure that the CoS assigned reflects an appropriate salary.
3. Be sure to recalculate salaries for hired people to include the new 37.5-hour standard in your records, with contract hours higher than before, to ensure that the threshold is still met.
4. The salaries of people with an irregular work system should be brought into line with the threshold resulting from the new legal provisions.
