Australia Subclass 482 Skills in Demand Visa: TSMIT and Salary Calculator

What the 482 Salary Rules Require in 2026

The Skills in Demand visa, subclass 482, is an employer-sponsored temporary visa that replaced the old Temporary Skill Shortage visa settings. Home Affairs tests the pay offer twice, and a nomination must clear both tests before anything else about the application matters. The first test is an income floor set by the department. The second is the rate the local labour market pays. They answer different questions, and a salary can satisfy one while failing the other.

The income floor for the Core Skills stream is the Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT). It replaced the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold for this visa. TSMIT has not disappeared: Home Affairs still applies it to the Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 494) and the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme (subclass 187). Many guides and job ads still quote TSMIT when they mean the 482 floor, which is why this page carries both names while using the CSIT figure in the calculation.

The second test is the Annual Market Salary Rate (AMSR). Home Affairs defines it as the earnings an Australian citizen or Australian permanent resident earns, or would earn, for equivalent full-time work, for one year, at the same workplace and location. That is not a national average and not an industry benchmark scraped from a salary site. It is a rate tied to the actual workplace, the actual location and the actual duties.

Failing one test while passing the other is the most common way a nomination runs into trouble, and it is also the case this calculator is built to expose. A registered nurse offered AUD82,000 in Sydney might clear the CSIT and still fall short of the local rate for the role. A software developer offered AUD110,000 in Melbourne might clear the market rate and still fail the Specialist Skills stream by more than AUD36,000. The two numbers need to be checked separately, then together.

The 2026-27 Thresholds Used in This Calculator

These are the figures published on the Department of Home Affairs salary requirements page for nominations. The page was last updated on 21 September 2026 and was checked for this page on 29 October 2026. Home Affairs indexes income thresholds on 1 July each year, so the figure that applies is the one in force on the date the nomination is lodged, not the date of the job offer or the date the visa application is decided.

Both indexed figures rose by about 3.8 per cent at 1 July 2026. For context on how quickly these move, the CSIT was AUD73,150 for nominations lodged from 7 December 2024 to 30 June 2025, and before that TSMIT sat at AUD70,000 for the 2023-24 year and AUD53,900 from 2013 until 30 June 2023. Anyone working from a 2024 or 2025 article is testing against a floor that is now tens of thousands of dollars out of date in the case of the specialist stream.

The specialist figure deserves a second look because it is larger than most people expect. AUD146,576 is roughly double the core stream floor, which means the Specialist Skills stream only works for genuinely high-paid roles. If an employer is offering AUD110,000 for a role they describe as specialist, the stream cannot carry it, and the nomination has to be built on the Core Skills stream with an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List instead.

What Counts as Salary, and What Does Not

Home Affairs is specific about the comparison. The salary requirements page states that both the AMSR and the overseas worker's pay, excluding non-monetary benefits, must be no less than the relevant income threshold. On the TSMIT section of the same page the department adds that the threshold does not include non-monetary benefits such as accommodation or a car, and that employers must pay such benefits in addition to the threshold. The nomination evidence checklist repeats the point in shorter form: the salary must be at a rate equal, excluding benefits, to the threshold.

In practice that means a package advertised as "AUD95,000 plus a car and rent-free housing" is not a AUD95,000 salary for this test. The monetary salary is AUD95,000 and the car and housing sit outside it. If a sponsor quotes a total employment cost figure that folds in a vehicle, a laptop, a phone plan or subsidised rent, ask for the cash salary separately, because the calculator needs the cash figure to give a meaningful answer.

Conditional pay is the second trap. Home Affairs frames the test around the worker's guaranteed annual earnings, and the nomination guidance asks a sponsor to explain the position where the salary package contains significant allowances or non-monetary benefits. What the department does not publish on that page is an itemised list telling you which allowances count and which do not. So the safe approach is the one this tool takes: treat base guaranteed cash salary as the number that counts, and treat a discretionary bonus, commission, overtime or a revocable allowance as unconfirmed until the employment contract guarantees it in writing. If a recruiter says "AUD80,000 plus a bonus that usually lands at AUD10,000", the number to test is AUD80,000.

Superannuation is deliberately excluded from this calculation. The published comparison is against the worker's pay excluding non-monetary benefits, and employer superannuation contributions are a separate statutory cost rather than salary paid to the worker. If your offer is quoted as a package that includes superannuation, enter the base salary instead. The same caution applies to salary sacrifice arrangements, which change what lands in the bank without changing the contracted salary figure.

One more limit worth stating plainly: this calculator does not decide whether a particular allowance is acceptable to the case officer. It shows you the arithmetic. The evidence and the characterisation of each component are decided on the nomination, and that is why the tool asks whether the earnings are guaranteed rather than assuming they are.

The Market Salary Rate Test: Why the Local Rate Binds

The market salary test exists so that sponsorship cannot be used to undercut Australian wages. Home Affairs puts it directly: if the employer intends to pay the nominated worker less than the equivalent Australian worker, the nomination will be refused. There is no discretion to trade a lower salary for a stronger application elsewhere.

The comparison starts with an equivalent Australian worker — someone employed in the same workplace, at the same location, performing equivalent work. The department is explicit that an Australian worker who is more or less experienced than the nominee and does similar work at a different pay grade is not an equivalent worker. That single sentence defeats most attempts to compare a graduate nominee against a twenty-year veteran, or the reverse.

Where no equivalent worker exists, the AMSR is built from evidence, and Home Affairs sets out what it will accept:

1. The applicable industrial instrument. A Fair Work instrument, state industrial instrument or transitional instrument, including the relevant salary level or classification, is the starting point where one covers the occupation.
2. Employment documents for an equivalent worker. Payslips or employment contracts showing what the comparable Australian employee is actually paid at that workplace.
3. Labour market information. Jobs and Skills Australia occupation and industry profiles, job advertisements from a national recruitment website or national print media that are in English and specify the salary arrangements, or remuneration surveys completed by a reputable organisation.
4. Written advice from unions or employer associations, where that is the best available evidence for the occupation.

The department also warns that generic market salary data or surveys alone may lead to refusal, and asks for an explanation where a salary range exists and the employer intends to pay at the bottom of it. In other words, "the average salary on a jobs board" is not a market rate. It is one input that has to be tied to the actual position.

One structural detail matters for high earners. The salary requirements page frames the market rate and threshold evidence requirements as applying where the annual salary is less than AUD250,000. At or above that level the nomination is not asked to run the same comparison, although the salary still has to be genuine and reflected in the contract. This calculator keeps testing both pay figures at every salary level, because the arithmetic is still useful and because a AUD250,000+ offer is not a licence to underpay relative to a higher local rate for an unusually well-paid occupation.

Which Test Is Failing: the Threshold or the Market Rate?

Once you have the two numbers, the diagnosis is mechanical. There are four possible combinations, and each one points to a different fix.

The second row is where most people are surprised. A salary of AUD90,000 against a threshold of AUD79,423 looks like a comfortable pass, and it is a pass on that test. If the equivalent Australian worker in the same Sydney office is on AUD98,000 for the same duties, the nomination fails the market rate test by AUD8,000, and the case officer does not need to look any further. Sponsors sometimes discover this late, after advertising the role and paying nomination costs.

The third row is the mirror image and it is under-discussed. In occupations where the modern award rate is below the CSIT, a sponsor can pay the correct local rate and still fail the threshold. The answer is not to argue that the local rate is fair; the answer is that the subclass 482 Core Skills stream is not designed for that salary level, and a different visa pathway may be the honest option.

How to Check a 482 Salary Offer Before You Accept It

Work through these steps in order. Doing the market rate research first and the threshold check last is the wrong way round, because the threshold tells you whether the role is viable on this visa at all.

1. Step 1 — confirm the stream and the lodgement year. Core Skills uses the CSIT of AUD79,423 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. Specialist Skills uses AUD146,576 for the same period. If the nomination will be lodged before 1 July 2026 the prior year figures apply.
2. Step 2 — strip the package down to guaranteed cash salary. Remove the car, the housing, the phone, the discretionary bonus and any allowance that can be withdrawn. That is the figure you test.
3. Step 3 — establish the market rate for that workplace and location. Ask the sponsor which industrial instrument applies and what the equivalent Australian worker is paid. If there is no equivalent worker, ask which of the accepted evidence sources they will rely on.
4. Step 4 — run both comparisons and record the gap in dollars. A single number is not enough for a negotiation. "AUD6,000 short of the market rate" is actionable; "seems low" is not.
5. Step 5 — recheck at lodgement, not at offer. If the nomination slips past 30 June, the indexed figures from 1 July apply. Build that into the timeline if the offer is made in the second half of the financial year.

Documents That Carry the Salary Claim

The calculator settles the arithmetic. The nomination is decided on evidence, and the salary claim is only as strong as the documents behind it. For a Core Skills or Specialist Skills nomination the sponsor is asked to show that the nominee will be paid the AMSR for the position, or that an exemption applies, and to show the pay is at a rate equal, excluding benefits, to the threshold.

1. A signed and dated employment contract, or a letter of offer that sets out the annual salary, the hours and the basis of the pay.
2. Payslips or employment documents for an equivalent Australian worker at the same workplace.
3. The relevant Fair Work instrument, state industrial instrument or transitional instrument, with the classification that applies to the position.
4. Job advertisements from a national recruitment website or national print media, in English, specifying the salary arrangements.
5. A remuneration survey from a reputable organisation, where the occupation is not covered by an award rate.
6. A written explanation where a salary range exists and the offer sits at the bottom of it, or where the package contains significant allowances.
7. A statement of how the AMSR was determined where there is no equivalent Australian worker at all.

What Happens When the Salary Test Fails

A nomination that does not meet the pay requirements is refused, and a refused nomination means the visa application that depends on it cannot succeed. The refusal is not a request for more information about intentions; the requirement is assessed on the arrangement at lodgement. A promise to raise the salary after the visa is granted does not repair the application.

The practical routes are narrow. The sponsor can lodge a fresh nomination with a corrected salary, which means new costs and a new processing queue and can take months. The parties can reconsider the occupation or the stream: a role that cannot meet AUD146,576 might work on the Core Skills stream if the occupation is on the Core Skills Occupation List and the salary clears AUD79,423. Or the applicant can look at an entirely different pathway. What does not work is arguing that the market rate is wrong because the employer cannot afford it. The department's stated purpose is to stop the program being used to undercut the Australian labour market, so affordability is not a defence.

Review rights after a refusal depend on the decision and the applicant's circumstances, and the time limits are short. Take advice from a registered migration agent or an immigration lawyer rather than relying on a general guide, including this one.

Core Skills, Specialist Skills and the Essential Skills Stream

Home Affairs publishes two stream pages for the subclass 482, and they carry different occupation rules as well as different thresholds. The Core Skills stream requires nomination in an occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List (CSOL), pay at the AMSR and no less than the CSIT, at least one year of relevant work experience in the nominated occupation or a related field, and a relevant skills assessment where the occupation requires one.

The Specialist Skills stream requires an ANZSCO occupation in Major Groups 1, 2, 4, 5 or 6 and a nominated salary that meets the Specialist Skills Income Threshold of AUD146,576 for nominations lodged from 1 July 2026. Major Groups 3, 7 and 8 are excluded, which is why trades occupations cannot use this stream however well they are paid. Both streams require the same one year of relevant experience and the same skills assessment rule.

On the Essential Skills stream, be careful with anything you read elsewhere. As at 29 October 2026, Home Affairs publishes stream pages for Core Skills and Specialist Skills only. A request to the department's site for an Essential Skills stream page returns its page-not-found response, and no Essential Skills threshold appears on the salary requirements page, which lists the CSIT, the SSIT and TSMIT and nothing else. This calculator therefore does not offer an Essential Skills option. If you see a specific dollar figure attributed to that stream, treat it as unverified until it appears on immi.homeaffairs.gov.au.

Five Mistakes That Break the Calculation

1. Testing the package instead of the salary. A AUD92,000 package that includes a fully maintained car and subsidised rent is not a AUD92,000 salary for this test. Non-monetary benefits sit outside the comparison.
2. Using a national average as the market rate. The AMSR is tied to the same workplace and location. A national median for the occupation can be well above or below the rate the case officer will look for.
3. Quoting last year's threshold. The CSIT moved from AUD76,515 to AUD79,423 at 1 July 2026, and the SSIT from AUD141,210 to AUD146,576. An offer built on the older numbers can fail by several thousand dollars.
4. Assuming the threshold is the only test. A salary at AUD79,423 exactly clears the CSIT and can still fail the market rate by a wide margin in a high-paying occupation and city.
5. Counting a bonus the contract does not guarantee. Discretionary pay is not guaranteed annual earnings. If the contract does not commit to it, do not build the case on it.

How We Checked These Figures

Every dollar figure in this calculator was read from the Department of Home Affairs website on 29 October 2026. No figure on this page comes from a recruiter, a salary aggregator or another guide. The salary requirements page carrying the CSIT, SSIT and TSMIT bands was last updated by the department on 21 September 2026, and the stream pages for Core Skills and Specialist Skills were last updated on 12 October 2026. Because the thresholds are indexed every 1 July, this page states the lodgement period alongside every amount rather than presenting a single undated number.